Fight of the Osprey
by stylesrj
Summary: Captain Douglas Jensen of the Federation Cruiser Osprey is tasked with an important mission - deliver vital data that may turn the tide of the war. But the route he's taken will lead him over several sectors of danger and excitement. What will he and his crew encounter amongst the stars? (Note: Contains space action, space violence and scenes lifted from the game itself!)
1. Act I - The Abandoned Sector Of Aquarius

Captain Douglas Jensen of the Federation Cruiser Osprey wasn't having the best of luck in the Aquarius Sector. His last jump from the previous beacon had been hectic. Whoever placed it did not account for the fact that the nearby star was actually a pulsar and that the entire battle was touch-and-go for him and his crew.

He shuddered every time a wave of ionising energy swept over his ship's shields and temporarily overloaded the systems. If it wasn't the weapons control room that shut down as it "de-ionised", it was the teleporter.

"And that damned Rebel boat kept on firing" Douglas grumbled. He ran a passive scan of the area to see if he could truly relax and take stock of what needed to be fixed and what areas of the ship needed to be vented of fires.

Nothing immediate came up on the scanners except for a dense asteroid field in the distance. Those sorts of hazards were easy to avoid unless they clustered around a beacon. He'd have Sensors run a full scan of the field in case something of interest came up.

Standing up from his chair at the helm, he went directly to the engine room behind him to see how his First Officer was holding up. "Two-Zar, what's the damage?" Douglas asked the Engi.

The Engies were a rather strange race. On one hand they were nothing more than a cluster of nanomachines forming a body, but on the other they needed the same life support as organic beings to keep functioning.

"Significant, Captain. Repair time on schedule" he said. Two-Zar certainly was efficient, but not a great conversationalist. But if someone or something wrecked it, he could fix it.

"Good. And our distraction buoys?" Douglas asked.

"Operational and transmitting. Still have time" Two-Zar replied. "Fourteen days at best before fleet overruns current sector."

Douglas brought up the sector map on his datapad. The beacon designation said the Aquarius Sector was "Abandoned" but judging by all the inhabited planets and pirate ships it hardly was that. He had yet to actually encounter the mysterious "Lanius" everyone kept talking about.

The map showed several different points the Osprey could jump to. Douglas had made sure to mark each and every one of them on the way to the beacon marked "exit."

"Good. Our battles will only get tougher as we near the base. We'll need to gather as much as we can in the next fortnight" he said to the Engi.

"Error. Mission should take priority. Fleet depends on intel" Two-Zar protested. Douglas hated to be reminded every sector about that. His ship was carrying data which held critical information on the Rebel fleet. Without it, the Galactic Federation was most likely doomed, being outnumbered and outgunned by the Rebels and their fleets of automated ships and devoted supporters.

He had not read the data himself, as it was on a need-to-know basis and he didn't need to know for the moment.

"We can't deliver that intel if we're destroyed because we didn't get every last bit out of the engines or the shield system" Douglas replied, contemplating yet again the importance of the mission he was undertaking.

Suddenly the doors to the engine room opened up and a large creature made up of grey rocks stepped in, ducking under a bulkhead. Its glowing red eyes gazed upon Douglas in a respectful manner as it spoke in a gravelly voice. "Douglas, Robert has found something on the scanners. You'll be amazed!"

"Thank you Debbie" Douglas replied to the Rock, annoyed at how the comm system was on the fritz since the pulsar. "I'll see to him right away."

He gestured for Two-Zar to follow him. The Engi tilted its head structure sideways and asked "Query. Why must I see Robert? He has several bugs in software."

"Because I'm ordering you two to get along when our lives are not in immediate danger" Douglas replied "Now stop arguing and let's see what he's got to say. And please don't tell him about his software bug. I'm not sure if he's in denial or acceptance."

"Acknowledged" Two-Zar said, his voice monotone but Douglas could pick up that the machine was reluctant. Out of all the Engies in the galaxy, Douglas had one who developed the capacity for hate. Engies developed all sorts of programming quirks when separated from the Hive-Mind for long periods of time.

The two officers stepped into the sensor room, the blast doors opening easily with a hiss. "Captain on the deck" Ensign Robert Smith said, getting up from the console to salute Douglas "Captain Jensen sir."

"At ease Robert. You don't have to be formal all the time you know. We're like family" Douglas replied, returning the man's awkward salute. He looked at the sensor data on the screen and asked "Tell me what's happening. Debbie said it was something amazing."

Robert pointed to the asteroid cluster and said "Crystals sir. Crystals in the asteroids."

Douglas magnified the display and saw it too. "It's a great discovery but not amazing. Those are ice crystals. Right?"

Two-Zar nodded "Composition of crystals indicates concentration of water. Can be electrolysed for hydrogen, useful for FTL fuel and oxygen, useful for life support. Water can also be used for synthesis of..."

"I get it" Robert shook his head and waved frantically. "Debbie said crystals are sure signs of her ancestors. I thought I'd have a look."

"I'm familiar with the legend of the Crystalmen. The stories are all the same. Some Mantis scavenger or a pirate raider finds an old cryopod and claim it's something ancient so they can sell it for a higher price on the black market" Douglas explained "Our shields are barely holding together as it is, Smith. We're not risking our hull integrity for a dead cryopod."

Robert opened his mouth to protest when the sensors station started beeping. An unknown metallic-grey ship had just arrived from the entrance beacon. It ran an active scan over the Osprey but no weapons were being charged or loaded.

Douglas told Robert to try and hail them and find out if they were hostile or not. He keyed the comms and was relieved that they had finally deionised. He told Debbie to charge the weapons in case it was all a ruse. The Rock grunted in acknowledgement. Meanwhile Douglas and Two-Zar returned to their stations, leaving Robert on the sensors.

The communication screen hummed to life as a bright-white bird-like creature appeared. He had a sharp metallic claw raised and spines on his back raised making himself look bigger. He started speaking a strange unintelligible language to which the universal translator had difficulty picking up.

Douglas remarked how he was finally able to meet one of the Lanius the sector was said to have scavenging about. The Lanius were rather "new" to the galactic scene and translator software had not been updated for their language. Efforts were being made in similar sectors though.

"Metals. Rocks. Trespassers" the Lanius Captain explained, gesturing a claw towards a picture of the asteroid cluster. At least this one understood the need for visual representation when understanding was unclear. "Repayment. Destruction. Choose." He gestured to a picture of a pile of metal, and then to a picture of a bomb from an old cartoon - a circle with a rectangle on top and a fizzling piece of string leading from it.

Two-Zar said to Douglas "Translation: Osprey and crew are intruders into Lanius territory. We pay them in scrap or we will be destroyed." The cartoonish bomb's fuse was shortening. That meant limited time to decide.

"I gathered that, thanks" Douglas snarled back at the Engi. "Any way we can slip past them and jump to the next beacon? I'd like to keep as much salvage as possible."

The Engi shook his head. "Negative. No Phase-Cloaking Device onboard."

Douglas chuckled to himself and remarked "You'll never let me get over that one. But I do recall it was your fault that we lost the hydrospanner."

Debbie said that the Burst Lasers were online and the Artillery Beam was nearly charged. She was in the process of getting a target lock. Douglas said to the Lanius on the screen "We cannot spare anything to pay for our transgression as our ship is damaged. We'll stop trespassing once our repairs are complete and if we have anything left, we'll pay you."

The translator must have translated it as "Blow it up your cloaca" or the Lanius had detected the weapons charging because the ship opened fire, firing several laser bursts at the Osprey, scoring hits along the shields. Douglas and Two-Zar immediately switched to manual controls and began a series of complex manoeuvres to avoid further enemy fire. Several laser bursts went through the depleted shields and scored hits, luckily in non-vital systems. Although he did detect a fire in one of the hallways.

Douglas banked the ship hard and pointed the cruiser's nose at the Lanius ship. There was a brief buzzing noise as the Artillery Beam fired. The prototype weapon was designed to penetrate even the strongest of shields and sweep a laser beam over an enemy ship. It wasn't very accurate, but it could do a lot of damage in a short period of time, especially if it was followed up by a barrage of the ship's other weapons.

Six shots were fired from starboard and portside weapons mounts of the Osprey. The ship had a pair of fast-charging and highly powerful Burst Laser Mark II's. Lasers however were a bit of a misnomer as the weapons did not instantly travel at the speed of light, only a small part of it. They were more like plasma guns that fired torpedoes of searing hot gas at their targets. Only beam weapons were truly considered to be "lasers."

The Lanius ship veered starboard towards the asteroid cluster, as if retreating. Douglas smiled as he knew the battle was won. As long as the Lanius ship stayed in there and licked its wounds, the Osprey could complete its repairs and jump to the next beacon.

"Captain, I've boosted the scanners. I'm picking up faint lifesigns from that crystal cluster. And a very weak distress signal" Robert reported from his station. Douglas frowned at hearing that news. It would have been pragmatic of him to just leave the system now before the Lanius ship repaired itself or brought reinforcements.

"Don't think like that" he mused. "I'd be turning my back on what the Federation is fighting for. "

He wondered what Two-Zar would say, before he realised that they probably didn't care either way. The Engi would favour keeping the Osprey intact by not going into an asteroid field but only if to preserve the technology and not the lives onboard.

"Directive?" Two-Zar asked. "Do we pursue signal or jump?"

Douglas looked at the displays of the asteroids, the Lanius ship and the jump beacon exit node. He placed his hands on the controls and announced over the comms "All hands. We're going in. Get tactical!"

The Osprey turned towards the field and the impulse engines flared, going in. The shields dropped and recharged as asteroids flew in towards the ship, attracted by the artificial gravity systems and the magnetic hull plating. The ship dodged the larger rocks while smaller ones broke apart on the shields.

Douglas had a course plotted for the cluster of ice-coated asteroids bouncing around. He and Robert kept an eye out for the hostile Lanius ship in case it saw their actions as a pursuit. By Two-Zar's estimates though, the ship would most likely be dodging asteroids while it repaired itself and wouldn't want to risk being destroyed if it were to attack the Osprey.

As the ship neared the ice, Douglas realised that it wasn't an asteroid they were looking at but a section of a ship that had been torn apart. According to the readings, there were still significant amounts of power as there was both life support and gravity in the parts that had not been breached.

"So that explains why there's an asteroid cluster here and not around the beacon" Douglas remarked, astonished at the discovery. "Maybe it's a lifeboat from a larger vessel. How long has it been out here? It can't be more than ten years at most for something that badly damaged to still be operating."

"Most Federation ship power sources can run at least for ten years on low power mode" Robert explained "But mass spectrometer readings indicate something on the lines of millennia. Could it have been hibernating?"

"We'll soon find out. Two-Zar, take the helm. Robert, Debbie. Teleporter" Douglas told his crew. The Engi said "Query. Is it optimal to send Captain on away mission? Regulations recommend two crew minimum remain on ship."

Douglas knew he was heavily understaffed, but this was a discovery he wasn't going to miss out on. Perhaps he could salvage that power source for the Osprey's reactor and solve his distribution issues. _And be a lot cheaper and effective than a backup battery_, he thought to himself.

"Two-Zar, I'll be fine. We'll beam down, check out the area and then we'll beam back. Shouldn't be a few minutes and we'll have salvage at least" Douglas explained before joining the others at the teleporter.

Two-Zar gave the Engi equivalent of a sigh as he sat at the helm of the Osprey. He kept one of his cameras on the scanners for anything out of the ordinary. "Sensors need calibration. Error. Deleted software for such calibrations as favour for Ensign Smith, provided he stay out of engine room."

The shields were holding fine but the moment could easily change. He spared some processing cycles to thinking about what happened last time he was in command of a ship by himself. Images of fire, constantly opening airlocks and smashed drones came to mind.

Then he saw a Rebel officer in an orange uniform, his chest glowing like fire before the ship filled with hot plasma.

Shaking his head he remarked "The Vortex was illogical. Designer requires permanent debugging."


	2. Act I - Salvage

Douglas was looking over the rulebook for the Ship To Shore Teleport as he hadn't touched up on that for a while. The rules recommended two at a time for optimal operation but he knew it had room for more. As long as everyone bunched up and kept their arms and legs inside the pads.

There was a flash of light and some mild disorientation and Douglas, Robert and Debbie found themselves onboard the damaged vessel.

Robert remarked "You couldn't have beamed us directly into a room and not the corridor?" as they looked around the cracked, atmosphere-free corridor. The corridors all ended with a view into space and the asteroid field except for a pair of stubborn blast doors which barely moved, even with Debbie's immense strength.

Douglas took a deep breath inside his spacesuit and examined a nearby air vent. He looked at himself and then at Robert. The man seemed thin enough to do a bit of ductwork. Although chances were that it was sealed when the ship exploded in hopes to seal in the life support. But it would be a lot easier to shift than the blast doors in that case.

He explained as much to him. Robert looked at the vent, nodded and leapt up into it like he had been doing it all of his life. He eagerly crawled through until he encountered a plate sealing off the vent from the outside. He reached forward with his multitool and cut the plate off, letting the air in the room leak out. He crawled through and sealed the plate behind him with the multitool before dropping down.

Robert found himself inside a relatively large room lined with rows of broken pods of some kind. The body of one of the mysterious Lanius was sprawled over what seemed to be the only intact pod in the room. Since the room had life support, the bird-like creature was dead. Probably, it was hard to tell with the anaerobic beings.

He shifted the body off and examined the contents. The glass was frozen over with thick ice crystals making it impossible to see within, but his portable scanner was definitely picking up three faint lifesigns within. Maybe someone was sharing a pod when the ship exploded. The words "Frieda Weiss" were stencilled on the front to which Robert had no idea what it could mean.

"Captain, I appear to be in some sort of cryochamber. Lots of pods" he reported over his suit's radio "And a dead bird… Lanius. Something in this room killed it and it wasn't me."

"We'll run decontamination when we get back onboard, in case it's a virus" Douglas replied as Robert went over to the main blast doors and found a manual override lever.

"Stand clear, I'm opening the doors" he added, pulling the lever. The doors hissed open and a massive gust of wind blew out of the room and into space until the air pressure in both rooms was equalised.

Douglas stepped into the cryochamber and gave an appreciative whistle at how solid the place was built. He wasn't so impressed by the pods themselves. "Only one pod?" he asked.

"One pod and three lives within" Robert reported before gesturing to a set of clamps at the base. "It looks like it's designed to be moved. We should get it back onboard before…"

"Away team. Lanius ship moving towards us, guns powering. Additional hazard. Asteroid on course for your position in five minutes. Gravity pumps may have diverted course." Two-Zar interrupted "Recommendation: Immediate recall and evasive action."

"Well shoot. Debbie, help Robert get the pod off" Douglas ordered before talking to Two-Zar "Lock onto our transponders and beam us up when I give the word."

"Affirmative" Two-Zar replied. Robert and Debbie managed to tear the pod away from its clamps. The Rock held onto the machine tightly. Douglas nodded and said "Beam us up Two-Zar."

Another flash of light and the away team was back onboard. "Take the pod to the cargo hold then assume your posts" Douglas ordered before heading to the helm. "We'll decontaminate ourselves once we're safe. Keep your suits on and sealed if you breathe air."

Debbie gave the Rock equivalent of a laugh. While she breathed air like everyone else, the Rock(wo)men of Vrachos IV had powerful immune systems.

The Osprey shook as several asteroids impacted with the shields and the hull. "Warning, asteroid impact with unknown ship." Two-Zar informed Douglas as he arrived at the helm. On the screen he could see that the ship he had boarded was torn apart by a massive asteroid impact. He expected the power source to explode or go into meltdown, but instead the ship simply just broke into pieces as if they were held together with glue.

He then quickly put the forward thrusters at full blast as the Lanius ship started firing. The cruiser immediately reversed and narrowly avoided the lasers.

Using the side thrusters, he quickly spun the ship around, cut forward thrust and threw the main engines full forward as they tried to navigate the field. "Debbie, fire the lasers."

Debbie smacked her rocky hand against the console. The computer was reporting that the burst laser control systems were damaged and would require repairs. Obviously the repairs from the battle around the pulsar hadn't been fully completed.

That left only one option, but it was dangerous. "Douglas, we're going to need to turn around. We've only got one weapon currently working."

Douglas muttered a word that was probably more ancient than the pod they recovered. He quickly activated the manoeuvring thrusters, pointing the nose of the Osprey towards the Lanius ship which was darting through the rocks. A few stray impacts landed on its shield but it was closing fast.

A small gauge slowly filled up next to both Douglas and Debbie's respective stations. A solid hit with the Artillery Beam might spell the end of the Lanius ship and allow the crew to safety navigate out of the field.

After what appeared to be an eternity of waiting, dodging and damage reports, the gauge filled up and the beam was ready to fire. Debbie wasted no time with aiming the lance of red hot energy towards the target.

The beam swept amidships, cracking the Lanius' abused hull and causing the ship to spiral out of control into a particularly large asteroid. By some stroke of fate, it was still intact enough to send out a frantic hail to Douglas.

He saw the Lanius creatures amusingly enough waving large white flags just like in an old cartoon. Satisfied that they would leave him alone now, he accepted their surrender by turning the Osprey around so he could continue accelerating out of the asteroid field, leaving the Lanius to their fate.

Once free, he found the exit node and did a jump to the next beacon hoping he could finally get some repairs done and perhaps a better look at the recovered pod.


	3. Act II – Zoltan Protectorate

Captain Douglas Jensen was glad once he was at the exit beacon out of the abandoned Aquarius sector. An automated repair station hailed him and asked if it could repair his hull in exchange for some scrap materials. Without anything better to do, he chose the most expensive option while he briefly considered his options on where to jump next. The upper sector claimed to be pirate territory while the lower claimed to be a Zoltan protectorate.

He felt confident he could handle either one but he wanted to know what his crew wanted to tackle. His second in command Two-Zar recommended the Zoltans as the Engies were close allies. Debbie suggested the pirate sector as a good place to relax, because if it had plenty of fighting, it was relaxing.

Ensign Robert Smith contemplated both options himself before he decided the Zoltans would be a better option. "They've always guaranteed a fair hearing for the Federation and the women are said to be very gorgeous and open-minded towards those who are… unique."

Debbie scoffed at hearing that "Only if you encounter a Slug. They're the only ones who could probably tolerate a slimy man like you." Robert took great offense to that remark "What gives Debbie? Last sector you said not even a Mantis would kiss me, now you're comparing me to a Slug?"

The Rock(wo)man laughed, her glowing red eyes constantly flashing. She gently punched him in the shoulder. "If anyone is going to find love out in the stars… and I mean true love, it's going to be me."

"Whatever, princess" Robert snarled. Douglas let them banter back and forth. As long as they kept their little spats from affecting boarding missions, he was fine.

One hull repair and a jump later, the crew found themselves at the entry beacon to the Zoltan protectorate. As per standard procedure since the Numa Sector, buoys were dropped and scattered, sending off false signals going in various directions.

Almost immediately after doing that however, a green-painted ship moved in, weapons deployed and charging. "Federation Cruiser, you are in violation of Zoltan Protectorate 23-B Law 24, Guideline 50. You are committing the crimes of Beacon Obstruction, Relaying False Intentions and Littering" the Zoltan Captain shouted over the coms in a very stoic, rehearsed manner.

Douglas sighed and wondered if he could go back and face the pirate sector. "Do we get a trial at least?" he asked in a bored tone "Or even something to say in our defence? We have an important mission to get through."

He thought about the data he had to deliver to the Galactic Federation base. He had several more sectors to get through before the base was in range and the first Zoltan they encountered was trying to slow them down.

"Your punishment for such crimes is death by plasma fire. Do you accept?" the Zoltan asked, ignoring Douglas' plea for sanity.

"I plead not guilty and request you cease your attack approach or we will tear your ship apart" Douglas retorted, still bored while Debbie charged up the weapons. He hoped that the Zoltan would get the message and perhaps reconsider its approach.

"You are now also having "Threatening an officer of the law" added to your rap sheet" The Zoltan replied. He then heard a beeping noise behind him and a large explosive device suddenly materialised on the bridge of his ship.

The Captain was shocked at the sudden appearance of the bomb. As far as he knew, the Zoltan Shield was impenetrable to teleportation and missile strikes. Seeing the device right behind him made him afraid.

"Let me guess, you have no idea how it got past your Zoltan shield?" Douglas asked. "Here's the deal. You let us go without a fight and we won't blow a hole in your ship. Do you accept?"

He found it amusing that the Zoltan Captain was squirming over the choice he was forced to make. Could he uphold his duty as a lawmaker and make no exceptions or did survival instincts take over and he live to fight another day?

Sadly, the Zoltan put the law first and ordered his gunnery crew to start firing. Douglas pressed a button on his console and the bomb exploded, tearing a huge hole in the hull of the Zoltan ship and cutting communications. The ship listed harshly but the crew did not open fire on the Osprey – instead the weapons powered down and several lights lit up on the hull. He recognised the lights as the universal signal for a cease fire.

A new channel opened up shortly afterwards and a much younger-looking green-skinned Zoltan said. "You can pass, Captain. Thanks for killing that pompous asshole. Saves us the paperwork of getting him removed."

"Much obliged. Anything else we can do to help?" Douglas asked cheerfully as the Osprey started moving again towards the next beacon exit node.

"There's a Rebel scout ship a few jumps away whom we believe is trying to bring advanced technology to a primitive world. We're trying to slow it down but we're running out of red tape to throw at him" the Zoltan explained, giving Douglas the coordinates of the ship's last known position. "If you destroy the ship though, we can claim it was pirates from the other sector."

Douglas checked his sector map and grinned. "Then their fleets will mostly be diverted to that region" he explained to his crew.

Two-Zar ran some calculations and approved of the strategy. "This may provide optimal time to visit current sector until ruse discovered or pirates eliminated. Do not turn back however. Time is limited. Twelve standard days estimated. Only if we move now and deal with Rebel threat."

Douglas nodded and plotted a course for the primitive planet. It was only a few short jumps later with minimal fuss over the red tape when the Osprey arrived at the planet.

He set the ship's impulse drives to give them a good orbit of the world they were to defend. A Rebel Rigger-chassis ship was currently facing off a Zoltan Energy Fighter-chassis. Both had their weapons primed and ready to fire, their shields were both up but no one was willing to take the first shot. Douglas asked Robert to tap into their communications to find out how badly things had escalated.

"Stand down and return to your fleet, Rebel Rigger "This End Up." You are not to interfere with the primitive aliens on this world" the Zoltan ship announced.

"We are liberating this planet in the name of the new galactic government! These aliens will not be left in ignorance where they cannot be of use!" the Rebel ship hailed back.

Douglas briefly considered siding with the Rebel. He never was a big fan of that non-interference law the Federation imposed upon all officers. "That's how the Mantis came to be" Admiral Tully claimed when he asked why it existed "Some officer saw the little bugs living on their overcrowded homeworld and gave them the hyperdrive, thinking they could use the breathing room. Now look at the galaxy. If the Rebels don't get us, the Mantis swarms will most certainly."

The Admiral had a point in that regard, but he had seen plenty of worlds in danger of being destroyed because of an outbreak or an oncoming asteroid or some other threat. They didn't deserve to be wiped out because of the non-interference laws.

Although if Douglas interfered with that world's development and turned his back on the Zoltan, the Rebel ship wouldn't extend him any courtesy. Very rarely did a Rebel officer stick true to their word. Debbie said the weapons were locked on target and would be fully charged in moments.

The Rebel ship noticed this as well and fired at the Zoltan ship before moving away, charging up its FTL drive. There was a rippling of energy as the Zoltan ship's shields went down but Douglas wasn't paying attention to their status. The Rebel ship was not to leave the system and warn the fleet of the Osprey's progress.

Douglas gave the order to fire and a bomb teleported onto the Rebel ship's bridge. The explosion was followed up by a barrage of six laser bolts from the Osprey's burst lasers, tearing the shield generator and weapons apart before their damage control crews could rig up bypasses. A red hot laser fired from the cruiser's tip and swept a straight pattern across the crippled Rebel ship's hull, cutting into its systems and setting their medical facilities on fire.

The Rebels day got even worse when Robert and Debbie teleported onboard, tearing apart several repair drones and technicians.

Debbie stomped through the burning corridors without much of a care as the Rebels opened fire with their laser pistols, scoring more pockmarks into her rocky hide. They were equipped to deal with Zoltan and Human intruders, not creatures made of heat-resistant rocks. She grabbed one who was unfortunate enough to be in her way and smashed him into a nearby wall, snapping his neck in the process.

She then threw the limp body at another Rebel, knocking him to the floor. The Rebel didn't even have a chance to get back up as suddenly Robert was upon him, sharp blades in hand. His cut through the soldier quickly, yelling in triumphant glee at the violence before running his blades in a clearly thought-out strike at the ship's engines, disabling them and stopping the ship from jumping.

Debbie then heard the sounds of wheels on tracks and a human-shaped drone slightly shorter than she was had trundled into the room. It beeped several times as a sort of threat before spinning up one of its arm cannons, spraying heavy laser fire.

Some of the shots blew large holes in Debbie's rocky hide. Because she did not believe in carrying any sort of weapon but her fists, she had to improvise with throwing random equipment. The machine was spun around on its axis by a large piece of starship engine before stabilising suddenly only to have the Rock in its face.

The drone deployed a light blue energy blade to engage the Rock in close combat. It never did get that far though as Robert had leapt onto it from behind and tore the machine's head off, exposing the circuitry. A thrust of his blades later and the anti-personnel drone was no longer functional.

They then closed in on the Drone Control Room where a single Rebel officer was holding out, after everyone else was dead, fighting to their last breath. The officer wielded a remote control for another combat drone. Normally they were left to their own devices, but sometimes having a drone controlled by a person was better than the rudimentary AI installed. But before the drone could power up, Debbie knocked it aside and ripped off its laser cannon.

"I surrender to you, Federation scu- I mean Federation soldiers" the officer said weakly, falling to his knees and raising his arms. "I hate it when someone does that without actually fighting" Debbie grumbled "Do we take custody or do the Zoltan?"

Robert stated matter-of-factly "Federation law dictates that he's to be kept alive for questioning. Since he surrendered to us, he's our responsibility."

"Can I at least punch him in the face?" Debbie asked.

"Place him in the First Officer's quarters and lock the door. Level 3 security" Douglas said over the comms. "We can question him later. Don't rough him up before then" He knew Two-Zar wouldn't mind if his room was used temporarily as the brig. Engies did not need to sleep and the room was more of a courtesy than of any actual use.

Douglas brought the Osprey in close to the Rebel ship to salvage it. The Zoltan ship hailed him "Thank you. We were led to believe Federation ideals died along with the Federation itself. Let us aid you a little, for old times' sake."

A shuttle was launched and the Zoltan informed him that it contained some scrap, fuel and a shiny new toy to play with. They said they no longer needed it and that the Osprey would be better with it.

Douglas couldn't believe his eyes when it was revealed to be another Burst Laser . "Laser firepower is estimated to increase by 33%" Two-Zar calculated in his usual manner. Douglas took this to mean he liked it a lot.

After salvaging the Rebel ship's fuel, missiles and drone parts, Douglas spun up the FTL drive for another jump to the next beacon.


	4. Act II – Zoltan Research

The Federation Cruiser Osprey arrived at an unremarkable planet with a space station orbiting around it. Captain Douglas Jensen hailed it and asked if he could dock and refuel his FTL drive.

"Greetings Captain Jensen, this is Zoltan Research Station "Guiding Light." We are researching genetic distortion due to stasis sleep and prolonged FTL travel. Does your crew have the time to undergo a few scans?" A Zoltan scientist said on screen, his green body glowing with energy. "We will reward you most generously for your time."

_Wait, genetic distortion?_ Douglas thought to himself. He then remembered the cryopod in the cargo hold that remained unopened. They picked it up in the abandoned Aquarius Sector almost two weeks ago. First Officer Two-Zar said something about erratic readings from it. Sometimes there would only be one lifesign and other times there would be three. The Engi had yet to find a conclusion as he kept mentioning it being "Inconceivable" without explaining why. Perhaps he was missing the definition of the word from his databanks.

"Guiding Light, we picked up a damaged pod a few jumps ago and we cannot find a way to safely open it. Do you think you'll have better luck?" Douglas asked as he approached the station to dock.

There was some delay on the other end, followed by some shouting and a strange hissing noise offscreen, almost like an even more enraged Mantis. Douglas felt suspicious about that and he reached for his laser pistol. He asked the rest of his crew do the same and ready weapons.

Debbie the Rock(wo)man grabbed a heavy laser cannon she salvaged from a drone while Ensign Robert Smith brought his best energy blades. The Ensign loved close combat, like he was born for it. The two made for a great boarding team. Debbie could dish out and take immense punishment while Robert was like a graceful dancer.

"Sure, bring the pod to us. Why just last week we…" The Zoltan said before being interrupted by a loud screech. The Zoltan chuckled nervously and Douglas definitely picked up from his body language he was flying into a trap. He checked the door security systems of the Osprey as he planned to leave his ship unattended for a while and didn't want any unexpected break-ins or escapes.

There was a clanging noise as the Osprey docked with the station. Two Zoltan scientists in lime green labcoats stood at the entrance. Douglas recognised one of them as the Zoltan on screen. _A station this size can't be that short-staffed_, Douglas thought to himself, confirming that there was a trap in place. The Zoltan looked rather nervous at being there when Douglas and Two-Zar stepped out of the airlock, carrying a large pod on what appeared to be the base section of an anti-personnel drone.

"Is that the pod?" one of the scientists asked, poking it with a long metal slide-rule. Douglas wondered if the Zoltan were dressed and equipped like that to tell other aliens they were scientists or if they truly did use slide-rules in an age where computers did nearly everything.

Two-Zar commented "Query. Do subordinates of facility designate you Captain Obvious?"

The Zoltan chuckled "Amazing! I didn't think Engies knew sarcasm."

Douglas smiled and said "He's adapting to our little family. Next he'll discover this thing we call love." The Engi's head briefly went from a passive green glow to a more hostile red, perhaps to indicate a frown.

They were led down several corridors until arriving at a laboratory room. The pod was moved to the centre while the Zoltan scientists prepared to run some tests on it. "So how many people on this facility anyway?" Douglas asked, trying to start up a conversation. He was also gauging how many intruders were onboard. He didn't want to show his hand just yet.

"Just the two of us" the Zoltan said anxiously "The rest are off sick and are unable to work this shift."

_So apart from us and these two, the rest of the lifesigns onboard are intruders_, Douglas thought to himself. He sent a signal back to the Osprey while Two-Zar sent back a copy of the station's schematics, with emphasis on the ship hangar bay.

A few minutes later, both Debbie and Robert disappeared from the ship in a flash of light and landed inside the hangar. A red Mantis bomber was stationed inside away from prying eyes. Almost immediately the two boarders were beset upon by Mantis warriors. The giant green insects hissed in surprise at the unexpected ambush.

Robert and Debbie went into action. Robert leapt at the Mantis warriors with his blades and started swinging, lopping off heads and legs like a man berserk while Debbie fired her heavy laser cannon from the hip, supressing everyone else. She didn't have much to worry about their claws as most were armed to take on hapless Zoltan and Humans but some carried anti-Rock weaponry such as energy blades and acid-spitters, just in case of another pirate group.

Hisses and screeches were heard across the hangar as the two experienced fighters blasted and cut a path towards the Mantis ship. "If we can hack into their teleporter, we'll be able to beam those dumb bugs back to their ship" Robert explained during a brief lull in the battle "Mantis technology is easier for me to work with."

"Good. Put them all in one place. Easier to crush them" Debbie said cheerfully. Robert laughed and added "Oh but it gets better. We program their ship to fly into the nearest sun while we teleport out and watch them cook. Mantis fricassee!"

Debbie's glowing red eyes got wider at the prospect, the Rock equivalent of a wicked smile. But they first had to fight through a veritable horde to get to the ship.

This violence went unnoticed from where Douglas and Two-Zar were. "So mind telling me who you two are? Not to be rude but it's hard to tell you apart from each other" he asked the Zoltan scientists.

"Understandable. Not everyone can sense our unique energy patterns, having to rely on light radiation variances to tell others apart." the first Zoltan scientist said. "My Federation Name is Bomfy."

"And mine is Duncan" the other scientist said. His body then flickered as his skin tone went a more yellowy shade of green. "Now we should be easier to tell apart in your spectrum of vision."

"Thank you" Douglas replied "So, what about that pod?"

"It's quite interesting. I've never seen a cryogenic system like this. It appears to still be functioning" Bomfy informed him, attaching several cables to the pod. "We'll have to run some tests first."

Some time had passed and Douglas hadn't heard a word from his boarding crew. Either they were dead or were just so caught up in the fight to inform him about their progress. The two Zoltan scientists then came to a startling conclusion. "Amazing! It has the ability to reconstruct the body if it was damaged during transit" Duncan said excitedly.

"You mean bring them back to life after they died?" Douglas asked, sceptical "Did we salvage an ancient Clone Bay?"

"If you want to call it that. You familiar with the technology?" Duncan asked.

"Yeah and I think it's a big mistake to market it out there as something that brings you back to life" Douglas ranted angrily "They only create a copy that thinks like you and only your recent memories and experiences."

"I see you have some deep personal issues on the use of that technology and we heartily agree!" Duncan said "Like the clones they make, the technology has degraded over time as it gets copied and copied, the original design and intent lost to the ravages of time."

"So what? The pod actually brings the dead back to life?" Douglas asked, still sceptical.

"Long ago, cloning technology had the ability to capture the very essence of consciousness" he added, gently tapping the glass. Douglas frowned as things were going into the fantastic. "Are you certain? I know how you Zoltan are with your mysticism and metaphysical concepts on life. You write bad poetry about it."

"Well if we ran some more tests we'll come to a…" Bomfy started before the doors hissed open and two Mantis warriors stepped in with their claws raised threateningly and their mandibles twitching in fury. "No more stalling! No more tests! Time for weak Human Captain and Engi to die!" one snarled "Then we take pod for our own! The Mantis will be immortal!"

Duncan panicked and said "Forget the tests. We're being held hostage!" The Mantis would have torn him apart if Two-Zar didn't already move into action, his green-glowing head turning red as his right arm formed into a laser gun. "Combat mode engaged. I am firing my laser" he stated, shooting a pulse laser at the Mantis.

Douglas kept the other Mantis at bay with his laser pistol. The warrior kept ducking and weaving his shots, but at least he wasn't attacking Two-Zar or the Zoltans. The Engi would need all the help he could get as his body was not built for combat, his laser more of an emergency weapon than anything else.

Douglas kept backing up as his assailant was getting closer. The Mantis he was fighting was very swift for his kind. Every time he fired it was simply like the Mantis wasn't there. He was so intent on not being hit by the angry bug that he didn't notice the workbench behind him and tripped.

The Mantis took the opportunity to leap and tackle Douglas to the ground, forcing him to drop his pistol. The insect kicked the weapon away with one of his legs before raising his claws up high to deliver a killing blow. _Did not see that coming_, Douglas thought to himself as he raised his arms reflexively and waited for the end…

But before that happened, the Mantis warriors in the room were suddenly electrocuted and stunned by bolts of lightning from the Zoltan scientists. He remembered that they had powers over energy itself.

"Good timing" Douglas remarked, getting up to his feet and looking at Bomfy and Duncan. The Mantis warriors were then teleported away from the lab seconds later before they could recover. "And not so good timing from my team" Douglas remarked "But at least the crisis is over. I hope."

Duncan asked "You knew we were being held hostage?"

"We saw the signs as we approached. I had my best fighters sneak in and deal with your captors. I guess they found out how to hack their teleporter and send them all back to their ship. They could have done it sooner though."

There was the sound of another teleporter activating and a flash of light. Robert and Debbie appeared in the lab, next to the Zoltan. "Don't worry about your Mantis problem. We've sent them into the biggest bugzapper in the system" Robert explained cheerfully, brushing splatters of Mantis ichor off his suit.

The Zoltan looked both surprised and confused by what Robert was saying. He looked to the scientists curiously. "What? Is there something on my face?"

Two-Zar said to Bomfy "Suggestion. Ensign Smith has bug in software. Advise not bringing prominence. Gratitude preferable."

Bomfy shook his head and then explained rather frantically "On behalf of this research facility, thank you for rescuing us! They held us hostage to ambush unsuspecting passersby. They killed the rest of the scientists and probably would have killed us too if you didn't come along."

"The Federation looks after its allies" Douglas said cheerfully "So can we activate the pod now? I want to see who or what we've got inside."

Bomfy nodded and pressed a button on one of the machines connected to the pod. There was a rippling of energy and the sound of glass shattering as the ice crystals inside broke apart and melted. The exterior glass remained fogged up though from the vapour.

A nearby display showed a picture of a person's skeleton forming out of a puddle, followed by muscles and internal organs forming over the bones. Judging by how it was being shaped, the person being reconstructed was Human and possibly female. "There's a girl in that pod? An actual girl?" Robert asked excitedly, rubbing his hands together "This is what I signed up for! Space travel, space action and space love! Charlie would be proud!"

Debbie expressed the equivalent of a frown with her glowing red eyes. "You mean an actual Human girl" she said in a gravelly voice. Robert shook his head "The way you behave Debbie, you're hardly a lady."

Debbie responded by punching Robert in the torso, forcing him to the ground in pain. "I'm fine Captain…" he wheezed out, getting back up before Douglas could ask. "It takes more than some spoiled brat's punch to incapacitate me!" he bragged.

Debbie wasn't listening though as she looked at the pod and lowering her eyes in sadness. The Rock believed in the ancient legend of her ancestors, the Crystalmen and was expecting as much from a pod filled with crystals. Seeing it was a Human of some sort was disappointing.

Duncan ran a portable scanner over the pod while the machine began applying skin cells by some sort of unscientific ultraviolet bombardment. He then said "Even more amazing! The machine thinks there's only one body, but it's emitting three distinct lifesigns."

"What do you mean?" Douglas asked.

"From what we've determined, the pod was designed to carry only one person. But someone else got in" Duncan explained.

"It was the only intact pod in the room we found it in" Douglas said "There was even a dead Lanius nearby."

"Amazing! The system is trying to reform the occupant, but due to some sort of programming error, it thinks that both bodies and both souls within are the same person!" Duncan exclaimed "It's… merging them together."

"Is that even possible?" Douglas asked, concerned. Bomfy shrugged his shoulders. "It's possible between Zoltan. Organic lifeforms though… their immune systems will reject and destroy each other."

Douglas said "Sounds like we'd be killing her before she even lives." "Not at all Douglas. This is one sophisticated pod from an era long lost" Duncan reassured him, examining the readouts on the screen "Her physical form will be intact. What we're uncertain of is her mental status. When two Zoltan merge energy fields, one personality takes dominance over the other or they co-exist. Who knows what happens when two Human minds are put together?"

"I don't know, but I'm certain of one thing when it comes to us Humans. We do a lot of screaming" Douglas remarked as the display read "Estimated Progress: 100%" and the pod door started to hiss open.


	5. Act II – The Fifth Element

Darkness. Screaming. Voices. Every life starts with those three things.

She had no idea what was going on. At first there was nothing and then the next she was waking up for the first time in a strange new world with no idea who she was or what was going on. Tongues of languages unknown to her started chattering away loudly, but when she concentrated on the individual voices they became much clearer and understandable.

"Get away from the pod! We don't want to scare her!" a man yelled. A series of hisses and clicks came in response, followed by a high-pitched voice "You're no scarier than I am Captain. Besides, I'm just getting a better view. She's gorgeous!"

She opened her eyes and saw bright lights around her and what appeared to be the largest, greenest insect head she had ever seen in her life. She tried scrambling back as quickly as possible, only to hit her head on the ceiling of the pod.

"She's awake, Captain" the insect chittered, crawling away as the pod hissed open. She jumped out at superhuman speeds, landing on the ground with a graceful roll to a stand. Looking quickly around the room, she found the one who was identified as the Captain. Voices were chattering away around her and not just in the air but in their minds.

The people were forming a circle, keeping their distance as if she was some wild animal. Apart from the insect there were two beings made of green energy wearing labcoats of similar hues, a strange grey gorilla with a glowing green helmet, a large beast made up of grey rocks about as tall as she was and finally a man in a distinctive blue uniform and the closest thing to a Human she recognised.

She looked at him and frowned as her mind reached out towards him, trying to pick up on his surface thoughts and develop a means to communicate. The rock beast probably saw the staring as a threat for it then pointed a large weapon at her.

Memories flashed through her head and she immediately recognised it as a dangerous ranged weapon. Sensing the danger it posed, old reflexes went into action and she screamed loudly, generating a wave of energy radiating outwards. It knocked everyone else down and shattered several glass lab instruments, but the rocky beast held strong, only slightly staggering.

It grunted in annoyance before shooting her in the knee with the weapon, knocking her to the ground. No visible wound was formed but she couldn't feel her leg or even move it as the muscles stiffened up. The rock went to fire again when the Captain yelled "Hold your fire Debbie! We've probably scared her to… holy crap! That weapon can be set to stun?"

The Rock(wo)man Debbie grunted to him "I guess the Rebels might want to take prisoners with their drones… you alright Douglas?"

"Yeah, just peachy. Anyone got the IFF and registration of that cruiser?" Captain Douglas Jensen asked, looking at the winded woman. She looked afraid, raising her arms defensively at Debbie as if anticipating another shot.

Debbie looked at her and said "She's rather unusual. Didn't know Humans came in Rock-size as well."

"She's built from two people. Of course she'd be a lot bigger than your common and uninteresting Human" the Zoltan scientist Bomfy said "What I'm amazed by is her stability."

"Yeah, thanks" Douglas replied before talking to the woman. He had a feeling she wasn't actually a threat in the first place. "Can you understand us?"

The woman nodded before speaking slowly in the Galactic tongue "Language barriers are ancient, needs adaptation. Trying to read thoughts, make Translator compatible."

"Read my thoughts? Are you a telepath?" Douglas asked, worried that his thoughts were open. She nodded and spoke much more fluently, her ancient universal translator picking up the language quickly. "I am reconstructed from two people, one of which was telepathic most likely. I recommend you keep your surface thoughts to a minimum if you're worried about having secrets stolen, Captain."

She seemed to be very calm and collected for someone made up of two people. Douglas was expecting her to have an identity crisis or something dramatic. Her current status wasn't normal. "What should we call you ma'am?" he asked the woman.

"I don't honestly know. I guess this is the point in my life where I can make an identity for myself" she said, reaching a hand out "So how about Qarlina. Qarlina Supercluster. The ancient unknown Human of another time."

"Welcome to the galaxy Qarlina" Douglas said shaking her hand before gesturing to his crew. Suddenly the station started to shake violently, followed by fire alarms ringing. A voice yelled over the loudspeakers "Foolish meatsacksss! You think you can destroy usss that easily? We've detonated a bomb in your reactor core! Prepare to die!"

Douglas shook his head and grabbed his teleporter transponder. "Bomfy, Duncan, grab someone and hold tight. We're leaving now!" he said to the Zoltans. He said to Debbie "Grab Qarlina and take her straight to the medbay once we're onboard. Level 2 Quarantine. Who knows what ancient bacterium she's carrying."

Everyone grabbed onto something and Douglas said the command that activated the return transponders. A flash of light then sent everyone back to the ship.

Once onboard, Douglas went straight for the ship's helm and grabbed the controls. The cruiser violently released the ship from the Zoltan research facility's airlock. He didn't want to be near it when the station exploded.

Two-Zar put maximum power to the main engines, swinging the cruiser away and on a slingshot travel pattern around the nearby planet towards the exit node. On the viewscreens, the crew watched as the Zoltan facility collapsed, small explosions running up the sides before culminating in one big explosion, scattering the pieces of the station everywhere.

In the medbay of the Osprey it was another story. The Rock(wo)man Debbie was helping Qarlina. She sat on one of the medical beds while Debbie awkwardly fiddled with the controls with her large, rocky hands. An energy barrier formed around the bed as warm energy irradiated the medbay as the nanomachines sterilised everything else of potential contaminants. Debbie found it slightly tingly, her rocky hide resistant to high temperatures.

Bomfy and Duncan stepped into the medbay once the sterilisation was complete and underwent their own procedure for decontamination. The green energy beings were saddened by the loss of their home, and requested to be dropped off at the next spaceport they landed at. Douglas had suggested they could serve as crew on the Osprey, but they politely refused. The cruiser wasn't a science vessel after all but a warship.

"So how are you holding up? Really?" Debbie asked Qarlina, taking down the energy barrier now that the area was germ-free. The woman shook her head "I used to be two separate people, with their own aspirations and dreams. As long as they stay combined, I can exist. It forces me to make them my prisoners though. They're unable to take control or be heard, while I can use their memories, powers and experiences for my own purposes."

Debbie was unsure by what she meant. Qarlina clarified it more simply. "I'm fine. I have no past of my own, but I'm fine with my present and hopefully the future. Even if it does cost two others."

She looked to Debbie. The Rock's eyes were sullen as if upset. "I don't have to read your mind to know what's going on with you. You don't like me. Why is that?"

Debbie explained "There's an ancient legend of beings like myself but made up of crystals rather than rocks. They sealed off their homeworlds in order to protect themselves from the more aggressive Rock tribes. I had my hopes up that the legends would have been true when we found your pod covered in icy crystals in the middle of an asteroid field. But instead of a Crystal, it's an ancient Human who has no idea on what's going on with the state of the galaxy."

The rest of the crew arrived once the Osprey was underway and secure in its course. They gathered in a circle around the medical bed while Douglas stepped forward. "Sorry about the rush. I am Captain Douglas Jensen of the Galactic Federation Cruiser Osprey" he introduced himself.

"Federation? Do you stand for the good and order of the galaxy?" Qarlina asked. Douglas nodded "We started off as pioneers and explorers. We sought to make contact with new life and explore strange, undiscovered planets. To boldly go where almost no one had gone before."

Qarlina put a hand to her chin in contemplation as if she had heard that sort of thing before. Two-Zar stepped forward. "This Engi platform identifies as Two-Zar" he said in his robotic monotone "I am Captain Jensen's First Officer and Adjutant."

"Engi?" Qarlina asked. Two-Zar explained "Engies are self-aware organic platforms of nanites and the software required to operate. We assume humanoid forms for efficiency purposes and comfort of other sapient species. This platform in particular has preferences to repair and improve the efficiency of technology."

Qarlina smiled and reached out, running her hand over the Engi's head "So you're like some sort of robot?"

"Affirmative. This platform is considered to be a machine built for serving organics. However, this platform appreciates being on same priority in morality as fully organic beings and partially synthetic organics" Two-Zar continued, tilting its head sideways in response to being touched. The green light in its head lit up brighter than usual from a positive feedback loop. "I… this platform also identifies as male for easier pronouns."

Debbie walked over and gently nudged Two-Zar aside. "I'm Debbie. I'm the ship's muscle, although that's not what I have as I'm a Rock and don't have muscles."

"My people were initially from the planet of Vrachos IV, a barren planet made up of living rocks, mostly granite. As you can see, we're very tough people." She smashed a grey rocky fist against her chest as if to challenge Qarlina to hit it.

She raised a fist and punched as hard as she could into the Rock's chest. Debbie went back a few steps while Qarlina vigorously nursed her aching hand. "I lead the boarding parties" Debbie said boisterously "I like hitting things very hard. All Robert does is fancy and flashy moves with his energy blades."

"I guess that the big green bug is Robert?" Qarlina asked, looking to him. Robert Smith looked like a very large green praying mantis, slightly taller than the Captain when standing up. He wore a light blue Federation uniform built for his unique physiology. He said accusingly "Who are you calling a bug? I'm a Human being. Ensign Robert Smith, my fire-haired maiden of the savannah… I mean ma'am."

Qarlina laughed before looking at herself "I guess he knows how to call them when he sees them…" she then realised that she wasn't wearing anything. "Does your space ship come with some fancy space clothes I can cover up with?"

Douglas pointed to a row of Federation uniforms, seemingly fitted for a child. "They're very flexible and account for a wide variety of body types. They will identify you as part of the Federation so if you plan on jumping ship, it may be difficult to find new clothes if you're seen in Federation blues."

"And what if I choose to stay onboard?" Qarlina asked, grabbing one of the uniforms emblazoned with the Federation's insignia on the arms. Douglas smiled "Then we have to induct you into the crew of the Osprey. You'll be part of the Galactic Federation and what it stands for."

"I don't see the catch. I'd like to know more about the galaxy and you seem to be reasonable folk. I probably owe you a debt of gratitude" Qarlina said, stretching the uniform, astonished by how flexible it was.

"We have an important mission to accomplish, one that could change the fate of the galaxy if we succeed or fail" Douglas warned her. "There are no consequences if you choose to leave now and forge your own destiny. I recommend you avoid the yellow uniforms though. They'll lead to nothing but trouble."

Qarlina nodded "I've heard some thoughts coming from another room, talking about a Rebellion of sorts."

"Oh shoot, we've forgotten about the prisoner. We were meant to question him!" Douglas said, slapping his forehead in shame. Qarlina laughed in approval and donned the Federation uniform. Douglas couldn't help but stare at her well-endowed form through the suit. He wondered if that was where the pod decided to throw in some extra mass or if one of the people in the merger was already like that. Robert was making a chittering noise that was most likely a Mantis wolf-whistle of sorts.

They strode for the ship's quarters. The ship had just stopped off at an unremarkable binary star system and there was nothing on the sensors indicating a threat. This gave him plenty of time to question the Rebel prisoner onboard.

Two-Zar entered the code to his quarters and almost immediately the Rebel prisoner tried to make a run for it, smashing a food tray over the Engi's head and pushing him aside. Qarlina jumped in his way and braced herself as the man crashed straight into her chest.

"Where are you off too in such a hurry" Qarlina remarked, extracting him from his compromising position. "Your Rebel friends? Sit down"

"The Rebellion will bring order to the galaxy! I will not be a prisoner for long!" the Rebel yelled as he was escorted back to his "cell." Douglas restrained him to a chair and said "Now, Federation law dictates that when captured, all officers are to recite their name, rank and serial number for the records. Does your Rebellion have the same thing in place?"

"You will get nothing from me, Federation scum! I hope your ship suffers a core meltdown!" the Rebel yelled. Qarlina said very calmly "Your name is John Burton. Your rank is Colonel and your role was Security. You were in charge of drone maintenance on the Rebel Rigger "This End Up" am I right?" She then listed a series of numbers and letters.

"How did she…" John stammered. Qarlina laughed "Your answer would be bloody telepath." She then looked to Douglas and asked him what a Slugman was, reading the Rebel's next thoughts. "They're a lot like you in their psychic powers except they're very ugly lifeforms" Douglas simplified for her "And they're very manipulative. We used to have one by the name of Slogger."

John frowned and tried to concentrate on concealing his thoughts to little avail. _Knew I should have paid more attention in the drills on fighting telepaths_, he thought to himself.

"So Mr. Burton, my newest member of the crew is unaware about the Rebellion. Do you mind educating her about your cause?" Douglas asked snidely.

"You're kidding aren't you?" John asked, astonished by the request from the Federation officer. Douglas shook his head "I could tell her what I think of the Rebellion, but I'd much rather have her know straight from the horse's mouth. You know, to clear up any misunderstandings."

John looked at Qarlina. "The Rebellion seeks to bring order to the galaxy by any means necessary. The Federation has grown corrupt and weak, relying on aliens to do anything. You'd be best to ditch the Federation blues lady and put on the Rebellion yellows. It'll look better on you" He gestured to his own uniform with his eyes. It mostly resembled the Federation's except for the yellow colour and a large eagle emblem with the letters "MFK" emblazoned on it.

"What does the MFK stand for?" Qarlina asked. John smiled "You'll have to read my thoughts for that one." Qarlina did so and nodded. "So tell me about what your Rebellion does?"

"The Rebellion doesn't have stupid, convoluted laws about what planets to preserve. Aliens will be adopted into the ranks based on their usefulness, not because they asked nicely." John continued, remembering what they told him when he first joined the Rebellion.

"Is that why you rebelled? Because of some laws you didn't like?" Qarlina asked. John shook his head. "That was only a small part of several ongoing issues. What really was the last straw was the plan to let Slugs join the Federation! The telepathic slimeballs cannot be trusted to keep to their word! No telepath can be trusted with your secrets!"

Qarlina frowned, "So the Rebels are afraid of telepaths?" "The Slugs are vile, manipulative beasts. They would have corrupted the Federation from within and sold everyone out to the Mantis swarms as long as it benefitted them" John protested "We started our cause just at the right time all those years ago!"

"You believe what you want in your fancy idealist world of the Federation, with peace and prosperity for all but the Rebellion has support because people believe in us and our cause" John continued with his rhetoric. "The galaxy cannot be united under a coalition of species. One must be in charge to take control and there's no way it'll be done with the Slugs!"

"My friends are coming to rescue me. When they do, it's best you surrender to them. I may convince them not to execute you on the spot. Perhaps the Engi could get work as a slave" he concluded.

"Highly unlikely" Two-Zar spoke up. "Rebel forces do not see Engi as useful. See self-awareness as restriction to hardware. Would disassemble personality matrix, leave only basic software. Engi becomes drone. Not considered slave."

Despite the robotic monotone, it showed that Two-Zar did not approve of such a fate for himself.

Douglas said to John "And that's about all I think we should hear from you. You'll remain here as our prisoner."

John started laughing. Slowly at first. "What's so funny?" Douglas asked. John kept on doing so. Qarlina looked worried though "Captain, he's trying to cloud his mind so I can't read his thoughts. But I think he's got a bomb planted in his chest."

John was laughing even harder, to which Qarlina wondered if it was even possible. He then stopped laughing a few seconds later. "Why isn't my chest glowing? They said before it went off, it would glow!"

Two-Zar tilted his head sideways before producing a grey Human heart with several lights on it. "This is the device in question?" the Engi asked, implying smugness for his monotone.

Defeated, John sighed. "That's the plasma bomb they implanted in me. If the Federation was to capture me, I was to wait until the officers of the ship were together before detonating. I would have been revived back at the shipyard in a Clone Bay, having accomplished a job well-done in hindering the Federation's efforts."

Two-Zar nodded. "Had similar outcome when uploaded into Vortex. Caused system failure on vessel and forced to upload to this platform for safety. Updated software to prevent further incidents."

"They've done it before?" Douglas asked. "Why am I only informed now Two-Zar? The Rebels are taking advantage of our honour with such a low blow and you've withheld the information for months?"

"Apologies. Made assumption incident was only in singular case due to lack of reinforcing evidence. Did not share experience with Hive-Mind" Two-Zar said "When detecting explosives in John, software updated to account for new tactic. Will inform Federation Command and the Hive-Mind upon arrival about new Rebellion tactic."

John sighed "Personally, I would have died fighting for the cause, but I drew the short straw that week and had to carry the bomb. You still will not get anything out of me, Federation scum! I will die fighting and I will be rewarded for my services to the cause!"

Douglas sighed and headed for the door. "The Federation isn't ideal in itself and there have been horrible mistakes, but the Rebellion is much worse. At least the Federation tried to correct their mistake with the Mantis and unite the galaxy."

He looked to John with a glare "As for your Rebellion, attaching bombs to prisoners is a war crime and I should throw you out the airlock for taking part." The Rebel shrugged, and then spat into Douglas' face. "If I wasn't tied to this chair, I'd try and kill you. But spitting is about all I can do."

Douglas wiped his face and walked out. Qarlina followed after him "So that's what being a Rebel is like? Dominance by any means?"

"This is why the Rebellion must be stopped" Douglas said "Our mission is to deliver such an end. We have information they want back and they'll scour the galaxy making sure it does not get to Federation Command for it will ensure a victory. Rigging prisoners to explode is just one of their dirtiest weapons in their arsenal. Especially when coupled with cloning technology."

"Then why are you not making extreme efforts to make sure that intel gets to Federation hands? Why was I picked up at all if you're in a hurry?" Qarlina asked

"We can't just rush in there, we'd be torn apart by pirates with superior weapons and ships" Douglas explained. "Our route to Federation Command takes us past most of the rebel controlled sectors. We still need to explore each sector as much as possible because we need every advantage we can get."

He tapped one of the hallways with a fist and continued. "When I was first assigned to the Osprey, all this bucket of bolts had was a single burst laser and a poorly calibrated artillery beam. It barely held together getting us through the first sector."

"At the next available market, we spent most of our gains on getting the hull patched up. The next beacon we jumped to, I nearly lost all my crew to a missile barrage to the medical facilities. Only Two-Zar and I were left. We decided to stop rushing through and slow down."

"Designed special distraction buoys to assist in increasing exploration time of sectors" Two-Zar added.

"My condolences I guess. It must be hard to lose a lot of people you know" Qarlina said "I wish I could say the same but I can't remember anyone from my time yet. But chances are they're all dead anyway to worry about."

"I've had to do some questionable activities in order to get the Osprey where it is today. When pirates surrender, Federation law dictates we must accept it. But some pirates play dirty and open fire when we're recovering or they withhold the cargo they promised us and jump away" Douglas said "It's also much easier for everyone if the pirate ship is destroyed or the crew killed. There's a greater reward in salvage and also in morality."

"So in order to save the Federation, you're going against the Federation's wishes and playing space pirate? The chaos of the galaxy?" Qarlina asked. Douglas nodded.

She shrugged "Where do I sign up?"

"You already have Ensign Qarlina Supercluster. Welcome to the Osprey."


	6. Act III – Dread Pirate Tuco

Captain Douglas Jensen of the Federation Cruiser Osprey was in yet another spot of trouble. He was at a jump beacon close to a small colony world and no one was answering his hails. Suddenly a pirate ship came out from behind a planet towards them, guns charged and ready to fire. They were using a repurposed Rebel Fighter chassis for their ship. Douglas didn't want to know if the Rebels gave it to them back in the early days or if they captured it for themselves.

The pirates sent out a transmission on screen. A man dressed in a tricorner hat and an eyepatch greeted them. "Haha! I am the Dread Pirate Tuco, prepare to die!"

"That quick to start a fight?" Douglas asked. Tuco laughed "We can always be persuaded to let you live… for a price."

"We have a Rebel prisoner. Are there any bounties for living prisoners?" Douglas asked. Tuco laughed again in typical pirate fashion. "Harr harr harr! The Rebels do not negotiate with pirates. They just give you guns and then promise to shoot you when their fleets arrive. They wouldn't want any of their prisoners either. Not with their use of those infernal cloning facilities!"

"That's the best I can offer you then Tuco. I'm not giving up anything. Not a single scrap of salvage or a drone part" Douglas said. He tapped into the Osprey's comms. "Two-Zar, prepare the engines for battle. Debbie, charge up the lasers."

Dread Pirate Tuco laughed, waving what appeared to be an energy cutlass on screen. "Since you have nothing to offer me except a fight, a fight you shall have! Prepare to be boarded! I've got some very special toys for you!" he shouted before cutting communications. "Captain, they've launched several drones!" Ensign Robert Smith yelled over the comms. "I think they're boarding drones!"

Douglas swore vehemently. Boarding drones were very hard to avoid and could bypass the shields much like missiles did. They didn't even stop to land, opting to smash straight through the hull and into a critical system like life support or the shield room. "Two-Zar, I'll need your help avoiding them!"

The Engi acknowledged his request, making adjustments to the engines, boosting the power when needed. The Osprey quickly accelerated away from the incoming boarders. One of the drones flew in close to the engines and latched on. Suddenly the blast doors sealed behind Douglas and the lights flashed red. "Critical error! Doors malfunctioning!" appeared on the display.

"Engine room reporting malfunction. Locked out of controls. Looking for bypass" Two-Zar reported over the comms. Douglas nodded "My console's fine, I can still move the ship but I'm locked in here. Squeeze what power you can out of the engines. We have to accelerate faster than they do if we are to avoid the boarding drones!"

There were a series of more crashes that shook the Osprey, followed by the sounds of lasers firing and blades slashing. Douglas checked the display for what was happening onboard the ship. Two boarding drones had slammed into the ship, flaring up the "Intruder Alert" light on the console. Robert left the sensors to the computer to engage the drones the best way he knew how – hand-to-hand combat.

The shields rippled as Dread Pirate Tuco's ship fired several lasers. There was a hissing noise on Douglas' console indicating another hull breach occurred from a lucky shot. He didn't pay much attention to where it was as the ship shook again as a third drone smashed into the hull. Douglas swore again. It had breached the life support controls and there was nothing he could do about it. Or so he thought.

Colonel John Burton was angry. Not that he was a prisoner onboard the Federation scum's ship, but because he couldn't let out his anger. He tried trashing the makeshift cell, but that led to him breaking the only food synthesiser in the room and not actually doing any real damage to the Federation. If anything, he'd hurt the Rebellion if he died the slow, painful death of starvation.

John was contemplating his next escape plan when the ship shook and one of the hull plates broke, sending the air slowly rushing out of the room. "I don't want to die of asphyxiation either" he grumbled, grabbing an emergency respirator and peering through the hull breach into the depths of space.

"Better now or never" John said, sliding through the gap and grabbing onto the outer hull of the Osprey. He spotted several similar breaches on the sides and immediately headed for one of them only to see a boarding drone come flying out of it, along with a mysterious Rock-sized woman who had grabbed on.

John glared and yelled "Federation lackey!" He knew she wouldn't hear it as there was no air to convey sound through space. Suddenly she pushed off the boarding drone, hands reaching outwards and her mouth wide open as if screaming. She landed on the hull with a roll and clearly did not appear to be hindered by the lack of air.

"Aren't you supposed to be in your cell?" she asked John, a brief gust of wind brushing past his ears. There was nothing to transmit sound through in space so he was astonished as he asked "What the hell are you? You're too good-looking to be a Lanius! Unless that's what the women look like"

"I don't know to be honest, but I've got a heartbeat so I know I'm not dead" Qarlina said with a laugh before putting a hand to her ear. She mouthed a few words but John couldn't hear them in the vacuum of space. Judging by her reactions though, she was probably telling the Captain about what was happening, the fact she was breathing without oxygen and then a few nods as if receiving orders.

"You're in luck Colonel Burton. If you help us with our little pirate problem, our Engi Two-Zar will fix your food synthesiser. Interested?" Qarlina asked cheerfully.

"And that's supposed to motivate me? You do know that the Rebellion is winning this war. I'd much rather take this respirator off and die before helping the Federation" John said.

Qarlina shrugged "But you know that would be a horrible way to go before you're revived. If you call the Clone Bay a form of revival."

John contemplated that fate. He had no idea how the Clone Bay worked, just that it could resurrect his friends if the machines were intact. Suddenly an idea came to mind, something sinister. It might not earn him points with the Rebellion and they might kill his spare clones permanently for considering the possibility of helping the Federation, but in his heart he knew his true loyalties. "Fine, what should I do?" he sighed.

Qarlina pointed to the drone attached to the Osprey's engines. "Go there and disarm it. Apparently that's a hacking drone and they do bad things when latched onto a ship's systems. Right now it's locking out the engines and slowing the ship down."

"I'm familiar with that concept" John said, looking at the hacker. Qarlina smiled and prepared to kick off the hull to engage another incoming boarding drone. "Oh and John, if you plan on later on betraying us, can you please not think about it in front of me" she called after him.

_Forgot she was a bloody telepath as well as a space witch_, John thought to himself, annoyed. His plan still remained though but he just had to be more careful as he went about to dealing with the hacking drone.

Qarlina knew the man could not be trusted. It didn't take a telepath to figure that much out for certain. She told Captain Douglas Jensen about it over the comms. "We'll worry about sabotage when we're not worrying about dying in the middle of battle with a space pirate."

Qarlina nodded and engaged the next incoming boarding drone. The Dread Pirate Tuco seemed to have an entire cargo hold full of the things. They moved under their own power and deployed heavy weapons when they landed inside a ship's hull.

She briefly wondered how she was still alive, not having time to grab a respirator for her uniform. She should have suffocated the moment she was thrown out into space with the last intruding boarding drone.

Then again, she found that despite having no air to carry sounds across space, she could hold conversations, as long as she was looking at the person she was talking to. It certainly wasn't telepathy when she did it.

As she grabbed onto the drone, she realised this one was different. Standard boarding drones were typically shaped like broad-shouldered people with a heavy laser and an energy blade, sort of like a Rockman. They also rolled about on caterpillar tracks like an armoured war machine. This boarding drone lacked the weapons and the tracks, instead having two armoured plates for arms and using wheeled legs for movement.

Upon being grabbed, the drone stopped accelerating and powered up its systems, glowing blue as the weapons charged. She reached a hand in as if to see if anything could be pulled out only to be electrocuted for all her troubles. The drone then landed and attached itself to the hull, not having the required momentum to breach it.

Suddenly the hacking drone attached to the Osprey's engines detached and the ship began accelerating again. Qarlina quickly engaged the magnetic soles of her boots and stood up, one hand on her head as if in pain. The strange drone was trying to cut into the hull with some sort of cutting laser from its head.

She concentrated again, looking straight ahead before letting out a powerful scream at the drone. The drone was swept off in a shockwave of air and far away from the ship as it accelerated too quickly for it to even try and catch up.

The Osprey then turned to face Dread Pirate Tuco's ship. There was a lance of red light as the artillery beam fired, piercing through all of the pirate's shields and causing multiple hull breaches.

The comms also came online as Tuco was making an offer of surrender. "I never was cut out for this whole Dread Pirate thing anyway! Please take what you want from our holds and let us live!"

Douglas frowned. He couldn't trust space pirates to hold true to their word, but this one seemed to be sincere enough. "Then power down everything but life support and basic deflectors. Prepare to be boarded."

He moved the ship in close, making sure the weapons were charged in case it was all a ruse. Qarlina headed back inside the ship after grabbing John Burton to make sure he stayed under close surveillance.

As soon as the airlock cycled in fresh air, Qarlina took in several deep breaths, relieved to actually be able to breathe something. She then escorted the prisoner back to his cell. Two-Zar had already patched up the hull breach and the food synthesiser, even leaving a cheerful note for John to read. The Rebel scowled at having helped the Federation but he figured it was necessary to earn their trust. All he had to do now was find a way to deal with that annoying telepath space witch.

Once everything had been sorted out with the Dread Pirate Tuco, the crew of the Osprey had jumped away from the beacon a whole lot richer in materials, fuel and firepower. The boarding drones were broken into parts and the crew went to examine one of the odd two-legged boarding drones they had fought.

"Unit contains weapon similar to ion cannons used in ship to ship combat" the Engi First Officer Two-Zar explained, pointing to the emitter. "This drone is designed for intrusion and support roles, unlike the boarding drone. The drone charges the main weapon, overloading circuits, disrupting communications and disorients organic and synthetic beings."

"Once finished, drone locates next system and overloads it. Uses cutting torch only when obstructions such as blast doors or hull plating pose problems" the Engi concluded.

"And I thought boarding drones were annoying" Douglas remarked, examining the parts. "At least they don't try and kill you directly." He looked to Qarlina "So now you're a space witch?"

Qarlina shrugged. She did not think highly of the fact that she had ventured out into space with nary a respirator and was perfectly fine with not breathing. "John said the same thing. Or thought about it" she said, sitting on one of the empty workbenches.

Douglas said "I always thought the Zoltan were the only ones capable of magic. But you're just full of surprises." He was certain that Qarlina was Human and not some Slug/Zoltan hybrid experiment.

"Zoltan are capable of many forms of energy manipulation. Analysis of Ensign Supercluster implicates abilities in manipulation and synthesis of air currents" Two-Zar interjected "Within Zoltan spectrum of powers but not widely used due to advanced life support systems effectively filling the roles needed for life support synthesis. Knowledge equivalent of Human knowing how to perform blacksmithing."

"It also didn't help me stop those drones. Those things are tough" Qarlina said "When that drone breached life support, I tried knocking it over but the bloody thing just bounced right back up. I had better luck in zero-g when the enemy drone wasn't fully latched on the hull."

Boarding drones could catch up to an accelerating ship, but only if they had an initial boost from the carrier.

"That's because they build them to take on Rocks and your magic couldn't even knock one of them over" the Rock(wo)man Debbie grunted "Either you need to learn how to use some other sort of magic or get some CQC training. I recommend the latter." She flexed one of her rocky arms.

Qarlina looked at the Rock(wo)man and said "If I have supernatural powers, why in the galaxy would I not want to use them?" "Because you couldn't even handle a measly boarding drone. Stick to what works best, and your best would be brute force" Debbie said cheerily before looking to Douglas "Next market, merchant or trade station we get to, Robert and I would like to request a few hours off to spar."

"Granted. Better someone else's station than our own battered hull" Douglas remarked with a chuckle. "In fact, I might come and join you after we've offloaded our excess cargo. There's no way I can even come close to your fighting styles but I could use the practice." He looked to Two-Zar. The Engi shook its head. "Combat not suited for this platform. Respectfully declining implied invitation."

"Suit yourself" Douglas said just as Ensign Robert Smith reported that just in fact the Osprey was coming up to a marketplace.


	7. Act III – Space Whale Markets

The Federation Cruiser Osprey arrived at the next beacon. The FTL drive started spinning in preparation for the next jump at the exit node. "So where is this marketplace?" Captain Douglas Jensen asked Ensign Robert Smith. "I don't see anything except for a few dead space whales."

"It's a black market, Captain. Dread Pirate Tuco said they were operating out of a space whale as that's one of the best ways to stay under the Zoltan radar without a convenient nebula" Robert replied.

"I don't trust smugglers, pirates or Rebels, but if there's a market there, we can offload our cargo" Douglas said, setting a course. "Two-Zar, when we dock, set the ship for Level 3 Lockdown. No one gets in or out" he said. The Engi acknowledged his request and headed for the Security Room.

Douglas contemplated the alternatives to trading with smugglers. Then again, a Zoltan marketplace was probably more difficult to deal with considering they had no Zoltan crew onboard. The green energy beings were sticklers for law and probably had enough red tape to collapse into a singularity.

Once docked and the airlocks attached, the crew began to depart from the ship and explore the space station. "Stinks in here" Ensign Qarlina Supercluster remarked when the air pressures were stable. She then noticed all the various structures built into the whale's skeleton. "Do you have alcohol in this era?"

"As technology improves, so do the means to distil fermented beverages" Douglas remarked "Look around. Chances are for every store there's also a place that serves booze if the two are not the one and the same."

Qarlina tried to think back to her past. Technically she lacked such memories, having only been created over a week ago but she retained memories of a distant time. "I remember never being able to drink while on duty and finding it infuriating" she said to Douglas.

"Then you'll be glad to know I don't hold such restrictions" Douglas said "The food synthesisers can create the poison and the medical facilities can cure it easily when your better judgement is needed."

Qarlina had to make a mental note of that. Although judging by the quality of food the synthesisers made, she also made a note to buy more natural consumables. "Perhaps I'll only get slightly drunk. I heard all the best ideas happen that way" she remarked, following Douglas to a large stand claiming to sell drones and drone parts.

The store was operated by a very large Slug named Terzack. The slimy, telepathic creature spread its arms wide open and declared "Ah, customers! Come browse my wares and tell me what you like. I have the best deals in the galaxy. For Federation, I give you my discount for your efforts to bringing the Slugs into the fold!" _Federation discount. More like Federation mark-up_, he thought to himself with a throaty laugh, _the ignorant Captain won't know I'll charge him double_.

"Actually Terzack, we were wishing to offload some wares. We've recently come across a cargo hold of boarding drones" Douglas said, showing Terzack his ship's manifest "You have any deals going for drone parts?"

"That cargo hold didn't happen to come from the so-called Dread Pirate Tuco?" Terzack asked, having read his mind. Douglas shrugged. "Perhaps. We don't have a control system installed on our ship and so we have no use for them."

Terzack cracked a big smile and laughed "You are in luck my Federation friend! For all those drones and their parts, I'll give you twenty-five scrap!" _Got to cut my losses somewhere. At least it's not Captain Nights. Who does that guy think he is anyway?_

Qarlina asked "Scrap?" "The Federation Credit isn't valid currency out here. People barter in salvage. We simplify it to calling it Scrap" Douglas explained to her.

Terzack tried to get a read on Qarlina's thoughts and was amazed to find it difficult to even skim the surface. The Rock-sized woman was thinking about a Federation of sorts but not like the Galactic Federation. _Interesting… I must find a way to get her to part from the Human. She seems useful for my plans._

Douglas frowned. "Twenty-five scrap? Listen here Terzack, those drones tore some nasty holes in our hull. Repairs are going to cost a lot more than that." Terzack waved him off "Not my problem. Maybe you could invest in a Drone Control System. Comes with a free Defense Drone Mk.I. Stops incoming missiles, asteroids and drones."

_Heh I'll sell him one of the defective drones_, he added to his thoughts.

Douglas asked "And how much would that be with my "Federation discount" eh? Two hundred scrap? I know how you Slugs operate. You don't even know what a discount is."

Terzack now knew his customer was not the sort to be easily fooled. He switched tactics and said, feigning defeat "Oh you got me there, you saw through my clever ploy to extort more scrap from you." He scowled and slammed his hands on the counter. "Two hundred scrap for the drone control system. One hundred extra for the drone, Federation scum."

Douglas frowned back and raised his voice. "I can always go to another merchant if that's how you'll treat me." "Good luck with that. In case you haven't noticed, the Federation is not welcome in this market. You'd be hard-pressed to find another merchant willing to deal with you" Terzack retorted. "So, twenty scrap for the shipment of drones. You wish to take it or get the hell off this station before you waste someone else's time?" _Let's see if he takes the bait_, he thought to himself gleefully, _don't want him supplying that Zoltan merchant with my merchandise_.

Qarlina whispered something into Douglas' ear. The Slug frowned, realising that she just told him what he was thinking. _Foolish Terzack! The Human is more telepathic than you! Cover your tracks!_, he thought.

Douglas turned around and walked away very calmly. Terzack decided to play his best trump card and pressed a button under his desk which activated a device in the back of the store. _Let's see how well you can protect yourself from this, bitch! _

Qarlina froze in place, putting a hand to her head, much like a Slug would when another was psychically attacking it. _You should be under my control, not fighting back!_

Qarlina's eyes would have turned a solid black but they were that colour already. Instead she turned around and glared at Terzack as if admonishing him for trying to use mind control on her.

_Who the hell are you?_ Terzack thought. Qarlina responded in kind with, _Qarlina Supercluster. The most unknown bitch in the galaxy. I'm your worst nightmare, Slug. Best power down that device and use it on some other unwary sap. I can see through your game._

Terzack was taken aback by this. He switched off the mind control device and quickly regained his composure for his next customer. "Hey, have you got any drones I can use to board ships with? A friend told me this was a good place to buy them."

Meanwhile, Ensign Robert Smith and the Rock(wo)man Debbie were exploring the black market. People of all sorts were milling about, including Zoltan authorities in their various uniforms from the Department of Narcotic Substances and Weapons, Zoltan Bureau of Intelligence Services and of course the armed forces of the Zoltan Resource Protection Committee.

Robert assumed there was too much red tape to get involved in shutting the place down rather than generous bribes to look the other way.

People looked at Robert Smith quite strangely but he chalked it up to wearing a Federation uniform and not because he was green, had four insect legs and two large front claws (or pincers. People called his hands different names) for cutting into flesh.

"So where's a good place we can spar?" Robert asked Debbie. While engineering and sensor operations were his primary abilities, when he joined the Federation, the Captain recommended he learned to fight. To his surprise, he found himself quite a natural, his hands more suitable for tearing things apart rather than putting them back together.

Debbie's glowing red eyes darted around before she pointed to a building that was guarded by Mantis warriors. "That looks like an arena. Forget practising fighting, we can do some actual fighting!" she said eagerly. Robert put a hand under his head and mused for a few seconds. "Shouldn't they be advertising the sort of fighters you'll be facing? I don't see any holograms or posters. Just Mantis guards."

As they approached, several Zoltan monks in green robes brushed past them, stopping in front of the guards. "You must stop the slaughter! True peace can be achieved without bloodshed!" they continuously chanted "The Great Eye compels you!"

The Mantises stood there, looking annoyed by the protestors. One of them, most likely the Guard Captain raised his claws as a violent gesture. "Unless you're here to fight, get lost!" he snarled. The leading monk said "The arena must return to its former ways of enlightenment! We will not fight!"

The Mantis Captain pointed his claws at the monk who merely raised a small sword handle in response. The other monks crackled with energy. The Mantis shook his head and lowered his claws, not wanting to fight a throng of Great Eye Monks who could zap him and his guards like the insects they were. "There must be some history between the two groups to avoid fighting it out" Robert remarked to Debbie.

The Rock rolled her eyes and suddenly barged her way through the throng of monks as if it was a full-contact sport. "Out of my way, your new champion has arrived!" she shouted before stopping in front of the guards, her eyes wide open in joy. "Where do I sign up for the fights?" she asked eagerly.

The Mantis Guard Captain chittered excitedly at how Debbie easily dispersed the monks. "You've come to the right place! Just go on in and tell machines name and homeworld" the Mantis explained, pointing inside the arena. "You'll get the best fight of your life with the Champion! Unbeaten for years but it could be you who does it!"

He then chittered under his breath "Another eager fool" "What did you say? Who's the fool?" Debbie asked, as if she was hard of hearing. The Mantis said "Oh the Champion's an eager fool. Go, go. Good luck!"

Robert helped up one of the fallen Zoltan monks. "Sorry about her. She's got rocks for brains and lacks patience" he said apologetically, using the flat of his hand to brush the monk's robes without tearing it. The monk said "You're oddly nice, considering well... you know." "It's what Humans do" Robert replied cheerfully. The monk said "Ah, I see" and nodded in understanding.

Robert was confused by this but then followed after Debbie. He gave his name and homeworld to the machines and scowled as they listed him as Mantis, despite clearly stating Human.

"So who are we going to be fighting? Is there a catalogue?" "There's only one opponent and it's the champion" the Rock replied matter-of-factly. "He hasn't been beaten in years according to the guards." Robert's mandibles lowered. "Debbie, didn't that strike you as a little odd?"

"No" she said bluntly. "I think it's just some hotshot Mantis. They even allow people to team up against him in groups of any size." "And you still don't find that odd he's unbeaten in years?" Robert asked, checking his hands. He wondered if he was going to die.

The two entered the arena. It was a very large open area with a layer of sand on the ground and enough seats above for thousands of spectators. Around the edge of the arena were several Rocks of different compositions, Mantis warriors in red and blue paints, a few Slugs and some Humans dressed in rags and explosive slave collars. The centre of the arena was dedicated to a raised platform with assorted skulls or pieces of all sorts of species, including an intact Zoltan skull. Robert wasn't even aware that the energy beings had them.

"Fighters, welcome to the arena! Our champion remains undefeated despite all comers and goers!" the announcer declared across the area. "The Zoltan know him as" he said a very long, screechy name "…the Engi know him as…" he said a series of zeros and ones rapidly "…and the Humans both Rebel and Federation call him… The Wise Man!"

Debbie chuckled "That's the best they could come up with? Wise Man?" as the platform in the middle of the arena opened up. A green glow washed the arena as a very short Zoltan carrying nothing but a wooden staff and long flowing robes appeared. He had a long lime green beard and looked like he was about to fall asleep if he wasn't already.

The announcer shouted "Wise Man, choose your doom!" The Zoltan yawned, looking around the arena. Debbie shouted at him "Come on already! Fight me first! Forget everyone else!"

The announcer remarked "Looks like someone's eager to get started, but this is the Wise Man's choice, not yours."

The Wise Man looked at a pair of Slugs and said "Slug." The two slimy creatures slithered forward, holding large spears and dressed in traditional armour.

"Do not be fooled by a soft underbelly" the announcer explained "The Slugs are excellent telepaths. Can the Wise Man beat them in a battle of wits?"

Suddenly the Slugs found themselves being lifted into the air as if the gravity had been switched off around them. They were then drawn in close to the Wise Man who in the blink of an eye suddenly smashed the two Slugs together before throwing the combined result at a nearby wall very casually.

It was still alive and screaming in horror, perhaps at its new identity.

"Never mind, he just beat them in a battle of force as he always does to any Slug who dares challenge him! Round of applause!" the announcer declared as several Mantises dragged the combined Slug away.

Robert Smith twitched his mandibles in shock, the equivalent of dropping his jaw. Debbie meanwhile put a hand to the bottom of her head and grunted "Isn't that what happened to our new Ensign?" "You keep her out of this! She was made in a lab, not on the field of battle!" Robert said angrily. _They might as well stick a fork in me, I'm done for,_ he thought to himself.

The announcer said again "Wise Man, choose your doom!" The Wise Man pointed to a group of five Rockmen. They looked like they had seen plenty of fights in their time, with heavily pockmarked hides and long mossy beards to indicate their age. They bashed their fists together as if expecting to put up a better fight than those Slugs did. "Rock."

"A hardened foe for a hardened veteran" the announcer explained as the Rocks stepped forward. The Wise Man threw two of them into the air with a flick of his fingers while the other three moved quickly at him. They were unable to land a blow as the Wise Man jumped above them, smashing his staff into one of the Rocks and tearing him into gravel with one blow.

He landed on the ground and hit another Rock without looking back, breaking the Rock into pieces and his staff into two. Wielding the broken staff pieces, he smacked them both in the third Rock, connecting both ends together again. He then pulled it out and the Rock collapsed into pieces, leaving the previous two he had thrown in the air.

He briefly contemplated his options before deciding to drop them both on the ground violently shattering them into decorative stones. The announcer said "And the Wise Man has defeated his next opponents just as easily as he did everyone else. Is there just no stopping this crazy Zoltan? Who's next for his choice of doom?"

Robert said to Debbie "Are you worried now? Those Rocks didn't look like pushovers either." "I think I can still take him" Debbie grunted. "After all, a rolling stone gathers no moss. They can't be that good if they had moss on them." Robert knew her overconfidence was going to get them killed.


	8. Act III – A Whale of a Time

Captain Douglas Jensen of the Federation Cruiser Osprey was having a fine day at the market. His First Officer Two-Zar was reporting no break-ins, abnormal readings and all attempted prison escapes were being dealt with.

"Engaging in activity known as "Blast Door Cat and Mouse" with prisoner" the Engi reported. Douglas wondered if the machine was actually having fun.

Douglas also thought he might have found a buyer for his cargo hold of boarding drones. A Zoltan rogue had set up shop declaring he had a wide range of scientific knowledge and equipment for sale. Douglas said "Hello my good friend, are you interested in some boarding drones?"

"Boarding drones? The sort that can catch up to speeding ships, breach hulls and can withstand solar flares?" the Zoltan asked, body glowing brighter.

"Those sort of boarding drones. I took them off a pirate and I'm looking to sell them" The Zoltan nodded and looked at the ship manifest. "For those drones, I can give you one hundred scrap."

Douglas nodded "It's a deal. We're at Cargo Bay D4 when you're ready to pick them up." The Zoltan nodded and picked up a remote control before yelling into the backroom "Duncan! Prepare the haulers. We've got some cargo at Bay D4."

"Duncan?" Douglas asked as a yellow-green Zoltan stepped out with a datasphere in one hand and a black collar around his neck. "Captain Douglas Jensen!" Duncan declared, trying his best to hide his excitement "Amazing to see you again sir!"

"You know my slave?" the Zoltan merchant asked. Douglas nodded "We saved him from an exploding space station. How did he end up in your custody?"

"The slave market. The trader was opting for a quick sale and the slave seemed to be very compliant after he returned from watching the Arena fights" the merchant said cheerily. He then looked at Ensign Qarlina Supercluster who was standing nearby. "It doesn't take a Slug's powers to see that you want to free him from servitude. I bought him for thirty scrap, so fifty-five should be fine. That's slightly cheaper than hiring a former ZRPC soldier as a mercenary."

Douglas frowned knowing that he was right. Still, he could make an attempt at bartering, especially now that he had a telepath to assist. "How about forty? You won't need him once you have the drones doing your research."

"Fifty" The Zoltan said "Fifty scrap and you can liberate this slave or have him for your own. That's the going rate for an Engi platform" Qarlina crouched down so she was at eye-level with the Zoltan. She could see into his mind that the Zoltan was desperate for the drones and was hoping not to break the deal, but at the same time he didn't want to be on the losing-end of the deal.

"Our Captain made a generous offer with forty. That's a small profit at least. You can take it or we'll take our business elsewhere. You can go and get your drones from that Slug Terzack" Qarlina declared.

The Zoltan merchant's eyes widened in horror as he realised the implications. The Slug always got the better deal, especially with the mind control device he wielded. "Forty scrap for the slave!" he said "But only after I get the drones will I hand you the collar controls." "Pleasure doing business with you" Douglas said. Duncan looked relieved as he prepared the hauling equipment.

"Amazing coincidence is it not that you saved me?" he said, tapping a hauling drone with a hydrospanner. "You know what, with your permission I'd like to join your crew. I feel like I'd be a lot safer on your ship than if I tried to make it on my own. I don't care if you're flying a warship."

"You do know we're on an important mission for the Federation. You could be one hull breach from death" Douglas explained, walking with him as he moved the haulers to the docks. The storeowner followed carefully as well. Duncan smiled "I don't care. I'd rather die with the Federation than be a slave or die like Bomfy did."

Douglas asked "Bomfy? What happened to your friend?" "He's with the Wise Man now…" Duncan said, looking at the ground sadly.

"Wise Man?" Douglas asked. Duncan explained "As a Zoltan ages, their powers get stronger and stronger. Some seek to enhance it even further by exploring the cosmos. I've heard stories of a Zoltan Wise Man who harnessed the power of a spatial rift in his thirst for the ultimate energy source and went insane. He travels the stars in search of more such rifts to further increase his powers and absorbing any Zoltan's energy field in his way."

Qarlina ran a quick probe into his surface thoughts and looked horrified at what she was seeing. Duncan continued "When we came here a few days ago, we were taken to the Arena and were given the choice to either fight for our freedom against the Champion or accept our role as slaves."

"They didn't tell us who the Champion was except he was known as the Wise Man. Knowing the legend I chose the safer option while Bomfy took his chances, thinking the Wise Man was just a story to scare children."

Qarlina asked "He defeated him and merged his energy field with his own?"

"I had to watch it happen. The Wise Man took on all the slaves at the same time. Mantis, Engi, Rocks. No match for him" Duncan said, gesturing wildly "They all died screaming in absolute horror or were twisted and deformed into shells of what they were before."

He looked at Qarlina "If a gladiator is lucky, the Wise Man merely changes them into something else. Take a good look at my thoughts Qarlina and just be glad you're sane."

She could see images of Mantis warriors splattered into puddles of ichor, still twitching as if alive (and not just reflex action or dying spasms). Two Rockmen were smashed into each other, forming an even bigger Rockman. The monstrosity was screaming before collapsing into particles of sand. A Zoltan in a lime green labcoat was wielding a slide-rule like a blade. He looked on in absolute horror as his entire body collapsed leaving only his tools on the ground.

Douglas slapped his forehead in shame as he realised the implications. He had given his crew permission to spar at the next market. "And if they're going to fight, they wouldn't pass up the opportunity to try the arena!" he groaned.

He quickly headed in the direction of the arena. Qarlina followed close on his heels. "Hey, what about my drones?" the Zoltan shopkeeper yelled. Douglas said "Talk to my First Officer Two-Zar. He'll sort the exchange out. We've got a rescue mission to get to."

Meanwhile, Ensign Robert Smith and the Rock(wo)man Debbie were in a whale of trouble. Thinking it was an easy fight, Debbie recklessly had signed up herself and Robert to fighting the Champion of the Arena, known as The Wise Man.

The Wise Man was a Zoltan who had great power over spatial rifts and perhaps the laws of physics itself. Every time the arena announcer yelled "Choose your doom!" another group of prospective fighters would be slaughtered, destroyed or deformed into something or someone unrecognisable. Soon almost everyone was gone and those left were afraid to be chosen.

Despite the unfair odds, Debbie was insisting she'd still be able to take on the Wise Man, citing everyone else was obviously weak. Robert was not as confident. He looked nervous as a group of Mantis were smashed together into one big, confused and angry bug. Before it could lash out though, a large green boot materialised above it and squashed it flat.

"Choose your doom!" the announcer said yet again. The Wise Man surveyed who was left, raised his staff and then stopped. He then looked to the arena entrance and pointed to the doors. "Human."

Robert hoped he meant the couple next to him who were also competing and not him. The other two looked as nervous as he was. "Can't believe we're going to be killed by an old man" the woman said "Should have chosen slavery over this."

The Wise Man looked to the announcer's station. "There's a Human with powers she should not be tampering with" the Wise man said.

"We don't have Humans like that" the announcer said nervously "Just the two slaves over there. Common and uninteresting Human slaves."

"Then have your brutes bring her to me!" the Wise Man said "Only the Zoltan can master the power of the cosmos!" The announcer looked confused at his request. "Are you sure you don't want to pick from the remaining pool? There's a Rock from Vrachos IV who's eagerly wanted to fight you since the start. Homeworlders are rarely ever seen!"

"They are nothing but toys before me. I want that Human or I will tear this station apart!" the Wise Man said.

Debbie crossed her arms in annoyance. "Hey old man, I was promised a fight and you're wimping out on me!" she shouted at him. Robert looked at the ground and put a claw on his face. The Wise Man looked to the Rock and shook his head. "You are overconfident and unworthy of a fight with me. Go home Princess and join your Rebel friends. I want that Human."

Debbie didn't like that answer, or being associated with the Rebellion. She grabbed a rock from a dead Rockman's corpse and threw it at the Wise Man's head. The crowd cheered at the impending doom for Debbie. The Wise Man raised a finger and stopped the rock just before it impacted with his head. He then threw it aside. "Do not even try to provoke me. My fight is with the Human, not with gravel like you."

Debbie didn't like that insult either "Nobody calls me gravel!" she said very seriously, striding forward in anger, grabbing several large rocks off the ground.

"Debbie, he's given us a chance to live, let's get out of here!" Robert called after her "We can pick a fight elsewhere."

"You heard what that pile of old sand called me! There's no way anyone calls me gravel and lives!" Debbie replied before her eyes widened "Except perhaps you, but that's because you don't actually mean it." She then charged ahead screaming at the Wise Man "Alright guys, let's do this! Debbie Vrachos!"

_What is wrong with that Rock?_ Robert thought to himself, chasing after her. The Human couple followed suit, the man yelling "Let's take him down!"

Just outside the arena, Douglas Jensen and Qarlina were rushing as quickly as they could to rescue their crew from certain doom. A simple stop to offload goods had turned into a matter of life and death. "Why does Debbie keep getting us into trouble?" Douglas complained.

A group of Zoltan monks stood in their path to the arena. Most of them were chanting out some sort of hymn to the Mantis guards. "The slaughter needs to stop!" the head monk was shouting to Mantis Captain.

"Listen buddy, go preach to someone who cares. If you want to fight though, go right on in" the Mantis said "I'm sure the Champion would love to fight you all." He made a sound that was probably meant to be a snicker.

"The Order of the Great Eye will not risk further Zoltan lives! It compels you to bring enlightenment and honour back to the Arena, not slaughter!" the monk said "True progress can only be achieved without bloodshed!"

Douglas thought what the Zoltan was saying was nothing but nonsense and hypocrisy. Or perhaps it was too advanced for his "simple" mind to comprehend. He calmly asked the head monk to move aside so he could rescue his crew. Suddenly all of the monks turned around and faced Qarlina. "I can sense your power, Human. You are the Chosen One!" the head monk said.

"Chosen One?" Qarlina asked as the monks chanting became more reverent, adding an ethereal hum to the dialogue. "Is there some kind of prophecy I'm to be aware of?" Everything was rushing too quickly for her to get a grip on things. It was only a week ago she had come into existence with someone else's memories and powers she hardly understood herself.

"I am an Envoy of the Order of the Great Eye" the head monk said. "You have been chosen to fight the Wise Man in the arena. You must do this…"

"Because the Eye thing compels me? It's my destiny?" Qarlina asked sardonically. The Envoy shook his head "If it were your Captain, I'd tell him that. But you must fight the Wise Man because if you don't, he'll destroy this station and everyone in it until you do!"

Qarlina asked "Why? I don't even know who the Wise Man is or why he's got a beef with me." "All Zoltan can sense the inherent power you wield, Chosen One" The Envoy said "No sapient lifeform has ever been able to come close. The fact you are wielding it makes you a threat to him."

Suddenly there was a great shouting from the arena entrance. "The Human is here right now, right outside this very arena! I can sense her power! Bring her in now or I will destroy this station!"

"I see." Qarlina remarked. She looked to Douglas "I guess I have no choice do I? We're too far to get back to the ship if we run for it." "In lack of a better option, you are right. Good luck and godspeed Ensign." he replied.

"There is no more time to explain" the Envoy said before handing Qarlina a small black device "It's dangerous to go alone. Use this."

"What is it?" Qarlina asked, looking at the device curiously. It was a sword hilt with a projection bulb on top. The Envoy said "It's a key. It unlocks the most powerful force in the universe when used for its true purpose."

"And what would that be?" Qarlina asked. The Envoy laughed "It unlocks death." "So it's a sword? You could have just said that you know" she said to him with a scowl. The Envoy shrugged "It can also be used to unlock doors." Suddenly the arena doors started to crack and ripple. "Although I don't think that's necessary considering all sorts of doors open when you have the power."

"You better go now and stop the Wise Man!" the Envoy said, leaving Qarlina without an answer. The Mantis guards didn't even ask as she burst through the door as it collapsed. She looked out at the arena and saw that a massive crater had formed in the ground, releasing a most awful stench of dead space whale into the air.

The middle was intact, with a raised platform and several people on it, all trying to beat up an old Zoltan standing there. His body rippled with energy as the combatants tried hitting him to no avail. Their attacks simply phased through him.

Upon seeing Qarlina, the Wise Man sent out a powerful shockwave which forcibly knocked everyone into the crater. Qarlina reached a hand forward and shouted, sending a wave of air at the falling Mantis, pushing him away from where a Rock was about to crash land.

The Wise Man then floated up into the air and looked at Qarlina. "Human, you do not know what you meddle with!" he declared. Qarlina felt like she should have been sick of hearing such claims. She shouted in response "Then tell me what I need to know! Don't be vague about my meddling!"

"It is beyond your comprehension to understand!" The Wise Man reached outwards and lifted Qarlina into the air, an invisible hand tightening around her neck. She concentrated on her own powers, loosening up the grip slightly as a solid barrier of air formed between the invisible hand and her neck. She didn't question how impossible or impractical such a barrier would be but it was better than having her neck crushed.

"Oh, you think your manipulation of the air is your ally?" the Wise Man laughed, forcefully throwing Qarlina onto the platform. "You merely adopted the power!" he continued, strolling over to her, bolts of electricity searing the arena. The crowds quickly dispersed as the lightning arced out into the stands.

Qarlina leapt to her feet and raised the sword hilt and activated the projector. A long blade made of dark energy formed in front of her. The Wise Man smirked at seeing the weapon and raised his staff in response. "I was born with Zoltan power, moulded by it. I didn't see the cosmos until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but vast and insignificant!"

Qarlina had a vague understanding of how to use a sword to hit things, but an energy blade was quite different to a blade with weight in one end. She ended up swinging wildly, almost hurting herself in the process. The Wise Man then slammed his staff into the beam and the weapon was sent hurtling off the edge of the platform.

"Was that your master plan, Human? You'd stab me with an Envoy's Key?" he scoffed, standing at the edge of the platform, focused intently on the woman. "The Order of the Great Eye is cowardly for sending you instead of their best warriors who know how to properly wield a blade, but I have to admire your pluck for trying."

Qarlina coughed "Considering what you do to Zoltan, I think they needed someone powerful to defeat you. One who does not have an energy field you can merge with your own" "Don't think yourself powerful, Human. One flick of my little finger and you'll be nothing more than dust. Or perhaps I should combine you with another Human" the Wise Man taunted.

"I'm already combined with two Humans. A third one won't do anything but make me stronger" she retorted, _and I'd lose my identity in the process, my whole existence_. "But instead of a battle of force, how about a battle of wits?"

"A battle of wits? That would be a mistake on the same level as lobbing missiles at an Engi escort cruiser without a defense scrambler" the Wise Man taunted "One should never challenge the Wise Man to a battle of wits when death is on the line!"

Qarlina smiled "Then you won't mind if I go first!"

She reached her mind out into the Wise Man's head and delved deep into his subconscious like teleporting onto a hostile vessel. The Wise Man froze up as his head suddenly started firing up intruder warnings and he scrambled his defences to repel the boarder.


	9. Act III – The Zoltan Mind

Ensign Qarlina Supercluster knew her powers of air manipulation were no match for a master of the cosmos.

Instead of trying to match him in a battle of energy with the Zoltan Wise Man, she closed inward towards her powers over the mind, hoping to find some weakness, some reason behind the Zoltan's insanity. She probed deep into the Wise Man's head, almost like she was leaving her body.

Despite the Zoltan being the most disciplined people, the Wise Man's mind was surprisingly open to be read, as if someone had left the door ajar to an archive full of filing cabinets. She projected such an analogy for her own convenience, showing the mental defences the Wise Man had in place as incompetent security guards, fooled by the equivalent of pastries and an ID made of cardboard with crude handmade drawings. It was a complete and utter joke at how easy it was to grab information on the Wise Man.

On the Wise Man's end of things, he was thinking his mind like a starship with his mental defences being his crew and defense drones, his knowledge being individual subsystems. Every time he sent them out to deal with the intruder, they would be defeated and another subsystem would be damaged or destroyed. It was like sending Engi platforms to deal with an angry Mantis.

He couldn't fight back physically either, deal with the intruder by taking out the source ship. When she boarded his mind, she somehow was able to lock down his weapons room and disable the systems before dealing with the crew.

Qarlina's first target was the security room, going in and unplugging the cameras and monitors before moving out and skimming files at a rapid pace. Most of them were about the Wise Man's discipline and training. He held several honours in the Zoltan Resource Protection Committee and in the Galactic Federation. Then he joined the Order of the Great Eye, reaching the highly respected rank of Envoy until he moved away on a pilgrimage to various spatial rifts across the Zoltan sectors.

Qarlina threw a pebble down a hallway and watched as the guard in the high security area chased after the sound, yelling "What was that noise?" so everyone could hear.

As she ran into the area, she noticed a trail of thick slime leading up to a cabinet labelled "Highly Restricted." She opened the first two drawers to find them empty. The lower drawer was jammed with slime so she gave it a thorough tug and it slid open. Inside was a single file folder with a pile of blank pages within except for one tiny word in the middle of a page near the end. Terzack.

"Mind control" she scowled realising just what was really going on. "The Wise Man isn't acting on his own free will. Someone else got here first and is manipulating his fragile mind." She slammed the cabinet shut and looked next to it at a broom cupboard door. "Main switcher" she mused, opening it and seeing several devices attached to a fusebox. One was clearly labelled "Mind Controller."

Without regard for electrical safety, she tore one of the intruding devices off. No alarms went off though but she got the feeling her actions had been noticed by the owner of the mind control device.

Suddenly a Slug appeared behind her, followed by two Slugs for guards. "Well done on making it this far Human" the Slug laughed "I'm impressed by your determination."

Qarlina felt her physical body go limp, yet her mental body remained standing. A purple rope appeared from the Slug's chest and went through her head as if trying to lasso something within. The Slug was trying not to attack Qarlina's mind directly, but instead attack one of the two minds that made her existence possible.

She was not going to allow that to happen though. Mustering her willpower and that of her mental prisoners, a ghostly hand reached out towards the rope with a knife and in a single swipe had cut it, sending a mental backlash to the Slug and knocking him backwards.

Qarlina then asked the winded Slug "Why are you doing this Terzack?"

"When the Wise Man visited this spaceport on his journey, I saw an opportunity. His mind was weak and open, like reading a datapad of information" Terzack said, recovering quickly from the unexpected retaliation "He knew this dead whale lived over a powerful spatial rift. Perhaps the most powerful of them all."

"Probably what killed it in the first place and the others in this zone. So what's stopped you from taking over the galaxy with his power, Slug?" Qarlina asked.

"Unlike the other rifts the Order harnesses, this rift's power is locational. No Zoltan has ever managed to use its power beyond this part of the sector. So I moved him to the grisly business of gladiator. The slave traders needed someone their products could not beat in combat in order to maintain stock" Terzack explained "After all, if the slaves see they can't beat the Champion, they know they're doomed and accept their fate as a slave."

Qarlina mused that there was something else going on rather than just keeping slaves in line. She saw flashes of various aliens being mashed together in some sort of genetic mess. All of them were dead or dying from being forcefully merged, their immune systems destroying each other from within. She noted this wasn't happening in the arena though, but at what appeared to be a massive facility filled with vats of some sort.

"Can you promise better results with Zoltan magic?" a distorted voice said "There will be a great reward available if your plan succeeds." She projected this by reaching into the Slug's head with the same hand and knife, extracting the memories out like a slice of cake so Terzack could see and hear it himself.

"I'm curious about you, unknown bitch of the galaxy" Terzack said with an evil grin, amused at how she was laying his thoughts to bare. "I can sense the two minds that make up your very existence. Such a merger is unstable and no one has ever survived for more than a day. The best in cloning technology, the Wise Man's abilities to manipulate biology… they do not work!"

He went to place a slimy hand on her side but she brushed it off. The Slug started asking questions rapid-fire about Qarlina's stability. Her two minds seemed to work in perfect harmony and each wielded powers that Humans could only dream of having.

"You'll have to ask a scientist about that because I don't know. I just exist at the expense of two others" Qarlina said. A file folder marked "Bomfy" materialised in her hands. She knew the scientist as one of the two who helped bring her to life. That scientist's energy field had been merged with the Wise Man and therefore his knowledge was a part of it.

She then set the file on fire, waving it in the air to fan the flames into a roaring inferno. "But not that one. Sorry Bomfy" she added apologetically as the ashes slipped between her fingers. Perhaps it was better the Zoltan (or his memories) were dead rather than boosting the Wise Man's power.

"That's alright, I'll just take Duncan. Shouldn't be too hard to stop your little ship from launching. This is a black market after all" the Slug boasted before he started his own display of mental prowess. "But first I will destroy your mind! Even if you're dead, your corpse is still valuable. Maybe it'll unlock the secrets" He and his guards suddenly became very mobile, jumping from wall to wall like acrobats. They materialised balls of lightning and fire, sending them streaming towards her.

Qarlina sent up a barrier which blocked the incoming attacks before putting her hands together like a ball. She let out a massive scream, causing the archives to shake, the ground breaking apart, sending small rocks, filing cabinets and papers floating into the air. Her barrier turned into a ball of energy in her hands.

"Terzack, what does the probe say about her power level?" a guard asked, looking to the Slug. Terzack took out a small grey orb from thin air and immediately slammed it into the ground, smashing the device to pieces. "It's over two hundred!" he shouted

"What? Two hundred? That's impossible!" the guard yelled in fear as Qarlina threw the energy ball at him. The Slug tried to block the attack, but he was forced backwards, his body tearing through the ground, leaving a large scar before the orb exploded, shaking up the archives and vaporising the guard, or at least his mental projection.

Somewhere out on the station, a Slug keeled over and died, leaving a slimy trail of blood where he slithered.

Meanwhile at the arena, the fight between Qarlina and the Wise Man had appeared to be at a standstill. Both combatants were standing, facing each other and hardly changing expressions. Whatever mental battles were going on, it was hard to know but one could hope they were epic.

A Mantis in Federation blues skittered over to the two. Clutched in his claws was a glowing black energy blade. He briefly wondered what was happening before walking over to the Wise Man and slicing him several times with the blade, just to be sure.

The energy of the blade disrupted the Zoltan's energy field, causing total collapse, sending out waves of energy which formed into rifts that threatened to tear the station apart. Canisters of fuel, crates of drone parts and military-grade explosives as well as pieces of starships long gone were ejected from the rifts. One opened up in front of Qarlina and the Mantis quickly pushed her away before the front plate of a destroyed Slug interceptor came falling out.

Qarlina then took a deep breath as she was thrown back into her own body after the mental world of the Wise Man collapsed around her. To the Zoltan, it was like a starship exploding, one last explosion marking his fate as his energy scattered into the cosmos. Perhaps he was one with the Great Eye now.

"That was a close one my fire-haired maiden of the savannah!" the Mantis said cheerfully. "You saved my life! Thought I'd return the favour."

Qarlina smiled at him, seeing the debris lying everywhere and said "You sure did. You're a true Human being Robert." She then looked at the announcer's booth as he was going hog-wild at the carnage.

"Give it up for… Robert Smith of the Galactic Federation!" the arena announcer shouted. The crowds went wild. "Robert Smith would you like to stay on as the new Arena Champion for blood, glory and fun?" the announcer asked.

Robert did not hesitate to turn down the offer. "Sorry, but I have a duty to serve the Federation. I cannot indulge in my nature for destroying myself, not when the galaxy is at risk" he replied, looking towards Qarlina and holding out a claw. "Come on. Let's get back to the ship."

Qarlina gently grabbed the claw and said "Good idea Robert." The Ensign chittered with delight and gave the sword back to her. "By the way, you dropped this. In my hands, it's clumsy and random but with your fine hands and some training, it'll be a more elegant weapon for a more civilised age."


	10. Act IV – Rock & A Hard Place

Captain Douglas Jensen couldn't be happier to get away from the black market. He had offloaded his supply of drones and parts to a Zoltan scientist and rescued an old friend from slavery. With the press of a button, Doctor Duncan the Zoltan scientist was released from servitude, his slave collar popping off. Now he was Ensign Duncan of the Osprey, a proud-serving member of the Galactic Federation.

The scientist was saddened by the events that had transpired. His friend Bomfy was killed and the Slug responsible, Terzack had fled the market with his stock of drones and mind control device. No doubt the crew would encounter him somewhere in the cosmos, but not today.

Duncan volunteered to help calibrate the Osprey's shields, as they had not been maintained by qualified personnel for weeks on end and probably could have used an upgrade. He bragged about how he could improve the recharge rate if given enough time and material.

"Anything else happen while we were gone Two-Zar? I heard the exchange went without a hitch" Douglas asked his First Officer once they were near the exit beacon node. His Engi officer prepared the FTL drive for another jump. "Prisoner attempted to leave premises four times using holes in ship security protocols. Sealed holes and revoked synthesiser luxuries for time-being, including fermented beverages. He did not react positively towards Blast Door Cat And Mouse activities."

Douglas had picked up a Rebel prisoner named Colonel John Burton a while back. After disarming his secret explosives and locking him tight in Two-Zar's quarters, the prisoner was a mild nuisance for the crew. Douglas hoped he would eventually turn around and see whose side he should really be supporting.

"The Federation is dying. The Rebellion will win this war and nothing you have on your ship will save you. They've got superior weapons and ships and also the numbers" John said during one interview. "You're one ship against the whole fleet. They will get you and the punishment for disobedience will be so severe that you'd wish for death. Humanity will bring order to this galaxy!"

Douglas was tempted to kill him many times, but the fact that the Rebels had him on clone storage meant keeping him alive, if only to make him suffer. At least he knew that the Rebel wasn't going to kill himself if he still had a chance to hurt them.

The Osprey was fast approaching the exit beacon to the Zoltan sector. Suddenly the sensors picked up another ship's impulse drives, followed by weapons charging. A message come on Douglas' screen. "This is an automated scout drone. Prepare to die Federation scum!"

The Captain saw there was no point arguing with a computer and told his Weapons Officer Debbie to charge the guns. "Auto-Scout. High speed, no shields" he explained before contacting Duncan. "Drones have predictable firing patterns. As soon as a gun is charged, they fire it. Time the shields around that."

"What if they have missiles?" Duncan asked. Shields were calibrated for stopping energy attacks, not slow-moving projectiles such as missiles or boarding drones or something being directly teleported onboard. "Or if they have cloaking?" The drone then suddenly disappeared from the sensors.

"Phase cloaking. I hate it when they do that" Douglas grumbled. The guns couldn't be aimed when the enemy ship was phased out and even if he did find the ship, sometimes the projectiles just passed right through.

Proximity alarms suddenly went off as several missile launches were detected and the scout ship decloaked. He cursed Duncan for predicting the two of the worst things a Drone ship was carrying. Douglas yanked hard on the controls and narrowly avoided being hit by the barrage. He had to act quickly though as the scout ship would no doubt reload rapidly and try again. "Duncan! Don't predict anything else!"

"What if they have…" he started before being cut off with "Duncan! This is not an experiment on chaos theory! Don't predict anything else that drone might be packing! Just don't!"

The Osprey spun around while maintaining its current course. The burst lasers were fully charged and ready to fire. He sent off a barrage, nine bolts flying towards the automated scout ship. The ship started spinning at breakneck speeds, avoiding the bolts in split-second intervals while launching several missiles in return.

"It just did a barrel roll through my barrage!" Douglas grumbled to himself, worried now as he quickly tried to evade the missiles, losing his target. Any second the drone would recharge the cloaking device and be able to launch another surprise attack.

Debbie said, to Douglas' relief "Firing Artillery Beam now. This'll gut the robot!"

A red laser shot from the bow of the Osprey and towards the scout drone. It cut through what he thought was the weapons control module before the machine disappeared, the beam passing through where it once was. "It phased again!" Douglas swore, cursing at how he was a split-second too late.

Suddenly a new message came on screen. "Battle amusing, but efforts futile. Now jumping to fleet. Have a nice day Federation Captain." The drone then jumped away before Douglas could do anything about it.

Douglas looked at his screen at the estimated fleet progress. The Rebels would no doubt be closing in on his jump signatures with that drone reporting the Osprey's true path. He then checked his next destination on the exit beacon and scowled. He was only two sectors away from Federation Command but his choice of possible destinations for the next sector held poor prospects.

In this event, he called all of his available crew to the Bridge for a meeting. A difficult choice always called for group action.

"We can either head for the Vrachos Sector or KazaaakplethKilik's Domain" Douglas explained, showing the display he had marked up. The Vrachos Sector was marked as "Rock Homeworlds" while KazaaakplethKilik's Domain was marked as "Mantis Homeworlds."

"Who's KazaaakplethKilik?" Ensign Qarlina Supercluster asked, saying the name without any hesitation in the pronunciation. Everyone looked at her as if she was crazy. "What? You mean none of you can pronounce that? And here I thought my Translator was thousands of years out of date."

"We tend to call him Kazaak for ease of pronunciation. Back before the Rebellion, Kazaak The Twin-Bladed was a legendary thief and a great warrior" Douglas explained "He has a cruiser of his own design to which we call The Gila Monster. It's his command ship and his pride and joy."

"Sounds like you've crossed paths before" Qarlina remarked. Douglas nodded "He could destroy ships or force them to surrender easily by teleporting explosives into the life support systems or a horde of Mantis warriors with pheromone-induced anger included."

"I don't think that's all you're saying Captain. You seem to be rather personal about it" Qarlina said.

"He attacked Federation ships and colonies if they didn't pay him tribute. Of course it's personal" Douglas ranted "But strangely enough though, he stopped his raids three months before the Rebellion started, as if he knew what was coming."

"Maybe they cut him a deal? The Rebels do that from time-to-time, right?" Qarlina suggested. First Officer Two-Zar spoke up "Likely. Botan Intelligence Network uncovered secret dealings between forerunners of Rebels and pirate leaders a decade before Rebellion."

Douglas continued for the Engi "The pirates were given advanced weapons and ships and they went raid-happy on formerly well-defended colonies. The colonists lost faith in the Federation as they saw colonies that should be impossible to attack raided or wiped out."

Qarlina could see where this was going. "Cue the ships in yellow and those black attack drones and you have instant support for the Rebellion so your galactic domination plans can begin!" she finished. "You think KazaaakplethKilik played it smart and went into hiding?"

Douglas pointed to the sector map again. "I doubt he's hiding if the sector is named after him. He probably stopped raiding to go build an army" Douglas said "If there's anything worse than the Rebellion though, it would be an organised Mantis swarm. So I recommend we stop Kazaak before he stops us all."

Qarlina put a hand to her forehead and remarked "Your thoughts deceive you Captain. It's revenge you seek, not a strategic target."

"No hiding my thoughts from a telepath" Douglas sighed "My father was killed by Kazaak."

Once everyone was looking at him, he explained further. He never brought up his parents to anyone until now. "Three months before the Rebellion, my father was delivering desperately-needed supplies to the Condor colony in a Federation protectorate. Then The Gila Monster dropped in and the colony went dark. Not a word, not a single returning ship."

"So you think your father is dead?" Qarlina asked. Douglas nodded "Either that or he was sold into slavery. I do not know what happened since the Rebellion started, so I'm assuming the worst as he'd never surrender himself to slavers."

"And by facing Kazaak, you'll get closure" Qarlina said "You're the Captain here and have control over where we go. So why are you hesitating to get revenge? Why ask us where we should be going?"

"Because I should not hold myself above others and my personal vendetta should not guide me" Douglas said "The Federation is a democracy and I'm trying to encourage it with my crew. Not everyone believes in it though."

Qarlina shook her head "In a small group, giving everyone a choice seems reasonable but I can't see it working large-scale. You just can't trust billions of people to make the right decision."

"This will be ironic, but what planet are you and your minds from?" Douglas asked curious. Qarlina closed her eyes for a few seconds as she gathered her memories. She then said "One comes from a watery planet with a rapidly-dropping temperature, the other says she was born of stardust and sustained herself on passing comets. I think she's being obstinate."

"So I take it neither one believed in democracy?" Douglas asked. Qarlina nodded "At best, politicians were just advisors for the leader."

Debbie the Rock(wo)man put a rocky hand on Qarlina's shoulder "You and I have a lot to talk about then. But first, we go to Vrachos IV!" She looked to Douglas. "You promised you would take me to my homeworld after what you did to me at Numa V."

"I thought you enjoyed your time onboard the Osprey and didn't want to leave?" Douglas asked. Debbie shook her head "I only want to return home so I can save my sister Ariadne from the Grand Basilisk of Numa V. Once she's safe, preferably with me, I'll talk about staying onboard."

Her glowing red eyes sunk deep. "I haven't told you how I came about to the crew of the Osprey, haven't I Qarlina?" she asked, turning to her before she could ask.

"I haven't really heard anyone's stories up until now. From what I know, Two-Zar used to be a spaceship, Douglas told us he lost his father and Robert…" Qarlina looked to the Mantis, Ensign Robert Smith. "Robert is wondering where his older brother is and what he's up to."

"I hope he's still Federation to the core and didn't get persuaded by Rebel propaganda" Robert replied "It's been many years after all."

"I'm still trying to learn about this galaxy, Debbie. All I know is that you're a really big bully who is always up to causing mischief for the crew" Qarlina said.

Debbie gave the equivalent of a sigh and said "Up until a few months ago, I lived the high life back on Vrachos IV. My parents were the Grand Basilisks over the whole sector and raised me to be their successor."

"So you're a runaway Princess?" Qarlina asked. "I can see why you're a bully. With that kind of power, you'd get away with anything. No one would want to mess with the offspring of the royal family."

"Up until I had to marry someone I didn't like. You see, to cement an alliance between the Vrachos and the Numa Sectors, there needed to be a royal wedding. My parents can't tell their children apart from an actual pile of rocks and despite the fact that Ariadne had blue eyes, I was chosen to be the bride. I kept telling them I was Debbie, but they wouldn't listen."

"And you didn't want to settle down and have Rock children of your own?" Qarlina asked.

"I did, but I wanted to be married to a Rock who enjoyed fighting as much as I did. Either that or be swept off my feet by a dashing young crystalline prince, straight out of a fairy tale" Debbie said, resting both hands on her face.

"Instead, my husband-to-be was the Grand Basilisk of Numa V. He's made of sandstone. They're very fragile and very cowardly." Debbie explained "They prefer fighting at a distance with heavy firepower rather than straight up brawls. Ariadne would've loved him though – Sandstoners have silly ideas about artwork and poetry, like they were trying to be Zoltans."

Ensign Duncan shook his head in shame. "It's true, we all go through that phase during higher education. Those Envoys of the Great Eye are the worst with their sonnets about flowers. Those things have over a thousand stanzas."

"I can see how they made it that far without being wiped out by other Rock tribes. Fragile bodies, big guns. Remind you of someone?" Qarlina remarked rolling her solid black eyes. Debbie said "The similarities to Humans don't stop there Qarlina. The Numa Tribe have this odd system in place where the other Rocks choose their chief through popularity. Can you imagine? Billions of sandstoners choosing who gets to rule instead of just gathering their strongest and fighting it out until someone wins?"

Douglas remarked about how Numa's operations were exactly how the Federation operated and he just explained it a minute ago.

"Anyway, our transport ship got lost in a plasma storm and the engines broke down as we tried jumping several times across the sector in search of repairs. Douglas found and picked us up. We then headed for Numa V with great haste" she continued "I remained in the cargo hold and kept to myself mostly, sometimes looking out at the viewports to see the pretty explosions of ships and helping to deal with boarders."

"During my time, I saw Douglas was quite a decent warrior and I hoped he could see reason not to hand me over when the time came. When we got to Numa V, I made my presence known properly and pleaded with the Captain not to hand me over to the Grand Basilisk" Debbie said "He would have forced me to serve his every whim. Cooking, cleaning and even gardening! The stuff that didn't involve violence."

"Really?" Qarlina remarked cynically, rolling her solid black eyes. She certainly didn't like the prospect of doing those activities herself, but the lack of violence was rather a petty thing to rebel against. "I sure hope Douglas understood all that and knew just what to say about it."

"I didn't want to have to pick a side in a culture I didn't understand" Douglas said to her "Besides the Basilisk's Chief Aide Pentimo then said that if I ignored her pleas and handed her over, I'd be rewarded well. I asked how so and a few hours later, I had a new burst laser, delivered, examined, installed and test fired."

Debbie didn't look upset hearing that. Her eyes widened and her body shook in laughter. "He handed me to servitude all for a shiny laser! I truly didn't know whether to laugh or cry."

"Well I took advantage of that idiot Pentimo's offer" Douglas said. "In the end though I didn't want to overstay my welcome. I spun up the drive and prepared to depart once everything was in place. Then Slogger said he was picking up a great disturbance."

Qarlina assumed he was talking about a Slug who was on the crew before being killed. She never met him herself though. "He sensed Rebel cruisers jumping into orbit" Douglas continued. "They had just arrived to watch over the ceremony and report back to the fleet. They then detected my ship and moved in, trying to stop me from getting away."

Debbie gave the equivalent of a smile "He realised what he was doing was wrong and faced the fleets to rescue me."

Qarlina imagined the Osprey like a noble white steed, with Douglas riding the helm like a fairy-tale knight, complete with energy sword. It barrel through an opposing army without stopping. But her fantasy had to be cut short once she pictured Debbie in a pink dress and pointed cap, staring out of a castle window into space. The idea looked both terrifying and hilarious.

"If I let that marriage go ahead as planned, the Numa Tribe would have handed over everything to the Rebels and Vrachos would have followed shortly afterwards" Douglas explained "Even at great expense to my crew, I was not going to let that happen. If I didn't get a lucky strike with the teleporter, I would have blown the wedding barge into atoms with the artillery beam."

"He lost Slogger in the process" Debbie sighed. "He was a nice Slug. Despite my proficiency in violence, I found his collection of pearls to be pretty, very shiny. I think he was trying to seduce me."

Qarlina nodded, rather indifferent to the idea of cross-species relations. "So because you broke up an arranged marriage between two major Rock tribes, your twin sister will instead be forced to marry the Grand Basilisk?"

"No doubt he's on his way over to the Vrachos IV to pick up Ariadne himself rather than entrust a new Chief Aide with the proceedings. Probably has a head-start as he doesn't need to explore each sector. Not when he has a fleet" Debbie replied. "I hope we're not too late."

Douglas said "That's also why I have my concerns about our next choice of sector. We could stop Kazaak once and for all and I'll avenge my father, or we could waste our time slugging our way through the Rock homeworlds in an attempt to stop a ceremony that may have already happened."

Debbie put a hand on the beacon for the Vrachos Sector. "I'm all for helping you with vengeance Douglas, but I'm going for my homeworlds. Better to try than to stand idle and do nothing." The decision was almost unanimous after that with only Two-Zar agreeing with Douglas. The Engies were not big on letting Kazaak run free.

Douglas shook his head and sighed sadly "A promise is a promise. I will help you rescue your sister. Revenge can come another day." The Osprey's FTL drive was charged and ready. One flash of light later, the cruiser was in another sector.


	11. Act IV – Crystal Calamities

The Rock homeworlds so far proved rather uneventful for the Osprey. At the first jump, the crew saw several asteroid mining outposts and remarked about how efficient the operations were and at the second they fought off a pirate ship that was attacking a civilian transport. During the battle, the civilian ship wisely jumped away and the pirate ship almost did until Ensign Robert Smith destroyed the FTL drive.

Using the materials salvaged from the pirate ship's wreckage, Ensign Duncan was able to upgrade the shield generators and optimise the reactor enough to provide power for it, with the help of several core expansion cells in some of the wreckage. He was especially proud of his work, constantly citing how amazing it was.

The only thing of note at the next node was a large gas giant with a ring of crystals around it. A large ancient device was detected in the ring that vaguely resembled an exit beacon used at the end of each sector. Captain Douglas Jensen asked Debbie if she knew anything about it.

"That device? That's from the ancient legends of the Crystalmen" she explained. "Long ago, us Rocks came from planets made of crystals and gems. But not just any sort of crystals or gemstones, but magical ones! It was said you could grow crystals into spaceships and they'll fly themselves without all that fancy technology needed."

"They set up ancient transport beacons to link up areas of the galaxy and then went around exploring uncharted worlds and meeting new lifeforms. Then something happened and they started retreating" Debbie continued. Douglas asked what happened. The Rock's glowing red eyes sank "We don't know, but the beacons started to vanish. This beacon is probably the only one left that I know of. It should be well-protected."

"Well-protected? I don't see any guards." Douglas remarked. He asked Robert to run a scan of the area while they headed to the exit node on the opposite side of the gas giant. If there were guards, they were either hiding out or something bad had happened to them. Either way, he didn't want to be around that beacon.

Suddenly the scanners picked up three Rebel automated scout drones on a heading towards the Osprey, weapons and shields powering up. Scans showed heavy firepower, including two Halberd beams on one and heavy missile launchers on another. The third seemed to have shield-draining ion weapons but they didn't look operational – the hull had been breached in the weapons control systems and the AI wasn't programmed to repair them.

The cruiser took evasive action, swinging around and powering up the burst lasers.

"Debbie, we have a target-rich environment. Take your pick" Douglas said to weapons control. He contemplated the use of the teleporter and sending Ensign Qarlina Supercluster into the fray.

He didn't know too much about how Qarlina would fare in combat though – the mysterious rock-sized woman had some unusual powers but against automated drones? "That would be crazy" she said over the comms. "Even if I could get inside, they can easily kill intruders just by flying."

The missile drone demonstrated that fact by spinning rapidly to avoid a barrage of laser bolts fired by the Osprey, the "wings" of the drone narrowly avoiding each bolt with precision, their AI processing the actions at the speed of light, compared to the bolts which were just under that.

The Halberd Drone fired a pair of powerful beams which washed harmlessly over the shields. The Halberd was a much more accurate weapon than the burst lasers and could penetrate weak shields. The Osprey then shook from a missile impact. Douglas checked the command console to find that the shield room was damaged, the missile breaching through the ship's quarters to get there.

The Captain didn't need to see the external camera feed to know that their Rebel prisoner John Burton had been directly hit by the blast and was knocked out into space to suffocate slowly. It was unfortunate as he had hoped to eventually convince the Rebel to abandon his misguided cause, but such luxuries could not be afforded out amongst the stars.

He looked to the current situation and yelled "Duncan, status report! Is the shield bay on fire again?"

Duncan insisted he knew a thing or two about shield systems in his time as a medical researcher on a space station, and so far he was proving to be right with optimising the recharge rate using his innate powers over energy. It was rather coincidental though that the amount of ship fires had increased recently. "Shields holding Captain at one layer! I'm going to have to run a bypass and quickly patch the damage!"

"Better hurry. There's a drone with Halberd Beams and we need two layers if we're to avoid all damage" Douglas warned him "I'm sending Qarlina to assist."

"Qarlina? Does she know how to fix shields?" Duncan asked as Qarlina stepped into the shield room herself and grabbed a multitool. She powered the device and told Duncan "I've only got a crash course in general maintenance. I think my last role on a spaceship was leading boarding parties."

"Boarding parties? Great, well just don't start bashing the equipment" Duncan said "That's only for Rock technology."

Qarlina then looked at the complicated machinery and wondered where to start. She put a hand to her head as she accessed ancient memories and said "One half of me at least was that but the other half… I'll find out and get back to you." _Let's see if you know a bit more about deflector shields in your time amongst the stars…_

The shield generator then started looking familiar as she began replacing panels and wires. The technology was quite different to what she "normally" worked with, but having a base-knowledge of electronics helped immensely. "I guess when your life is in danger, you become more forthcoming with information" she commented, more to herself than to Duncan.

"Amazing, we might just get another layer back" Duncan said before there was another explosion, sending everyone to the floor and starting a small fire. An Artemis missile had impacted into the room, damaging the generator and buckling the hull.

"Or not" the Zoltan mused grabbing an extinguisher.

Douglas gave out a curse at seeing how his shields were down. The Halberd Drone looked almost ready to fire when an explosion went off, rupturing the hull and causing the AI a brief moment of confusion as one beam powered down. It decided to divert power from the other fully charged beam to power up the rapidly-draining beam, leaving both weapons to charge up again.

"Nice shot Debbie" he remarked. Teleporting Breach Bombs had excellent results against automated drones. Still, he hoped that he'd have at least two layers of shield back before the drone fired that beam.

Meanwhile, Qarlina focused on her memories again once the fire was suppressed. Someone else within spoke up with a temporary alternative to the energy shield. "And here I thought you just lead boarding parties" she remarked out loud with a smile. Duncan was too busy welding conduits together to pay attention to the crazy woman's rambling.

"I've got an idea but I'll need your help Duncan" Qarlina suggested. The Zoltan shook his head. "We need to get the shields fixed. No radical ideas! Captain's orders."

"He forbids you from radical ideas Duncan, not me" Qarlina said, putting a hand on the main generator. "Channel your energy into this. I'll do the same thing. This might work or it'll kill us. Either way it should be amazing" she insisted.

Duncan sighed and channelled his innate power into the shields. Qarlina took a deep breath and began concentrating her power into the generator. The combined energy reached outwards into space along with a massive gust of air, causing a solid barrier around the ship.

A shimmering white field quickly formed over the weakened blue shield bubble. A large breaching warhead was fired from the missile drone, but instead of breaching the shield and doing more damage to the battered cruiser, it exploded on contact, causing a hole to appear. The Halberd Drone then opened fire, burning a wider hole in the barrier until it collapsed, leaving only the standard shield left and holding at one layer.

"What the hell was that?" Douglas yelled. He was familiar with the Zoltan Energy Shield which could block missile strikes and teleports, but they tended to be green and not drain the air from the life support system. "A long shot" said Qarlina over the comms, panting heavily as if she had went out for a marathon "But half of me said it was a good idea. Apparently she did it all the time."

She looked to Duncan who was collapsed on the deck. Such a powerful field had exhausted the Zoltan. "We won't be able to do it again though. Destroy the heavy hitters while I take Duncan to medical. I needed his help with the power boost and well… he's exhausted."

She quickly dragged the Zoltan to the medbay. "Hang in there Duncan. We did something amazing and it might just be what the ship needed."

Douglas smiled "You're a strange one Qarlina. Get Duncan into recovery and then tell one of your halves to fix those damned shields."

Meanwhile Debbie fired the Artillery Beam at the missile drone before it could fire again. The automated ship was gutted starboard to port, breaking in half and exploding into scrap metal.

"One down, two to go" Douglas said with a sigh of relief "Excellent shot." "Well it's only a simple matter of knowing how and where to point it" the Rock retorted "I doubt the same could be said of you."

"My wife would disagree" Douglas countered.

The burst lasers fired again and the drones dodged but several bolts hit their shields. Before they could recharge, a pair of beams were fired from inside the crystal ring of the gas giant, sweeping across and slicing the drones in half, which then exploded into scrap metal.

"Now that's convenient timing" Douglas laughed, watching their rescuer fly out from the ring towards the Osprey. The profile of the ship did not match anything in the Federation databases and the IFF kept switching between "DA SR-12" and "Simo-H."

Douglas smiled for he knew what that ship was. "And I thought I'd never see them again."


	12. Act IV – Matters of Great Nesasio

The ship was a Cruiser-class vessel, painted dark blue and resembled an ancient aircraft back when Humanity had mastered "heavier-than-air" flight. While in space, such a design was highly unnecessary, it allowed the ship more versatility when inside an atmosphere. The words Nesasio were stencilled on the side, followed by the Federation insignia.

The cruiser pulled up alongside the Osprey to facilitate easier communication between the vessels. Ensign Robert Smith reported that there was a Slug named Slocknaw trying to communicate telepathically with the crew.

"He says that his Captain, a man named Ruwen wishes to beam aboard the Osprey to discuss ongoing Federation matters. Should we trust him sir?"

"Slocknaw and Slogger were partners at the Academy. I can vouch for him" Douglas informed the Mantis. But then he frowned "Although last time I checked, Controller Metfel was in charge of the Nesasio. I guess she didn't make it. You know how easily someone's life can be snapped up without warning out in the galaxy."

First Officer Two-Zar spoke up "Unfortunate. Compatibility between software was 76.9 percent. Uncertain if same compatibility was shared in Metfel's software. Will be unable to determine indefinitely."

Douglas said "I think we can trust them though. Tell Captain Ruwen to beam into the designated cargo hold."

"Roger that Captain" Robert said, a little uncertainty in his voice. A few seconds later he relayed further instructions from the Nesasio: They wanted extra life support diverted to the cargo hold.

Douglas knew that meant there was a Lanius onboard. He said to Robert "Last time we encountered those birds they opened fire on us."

"Ruwen says he's mostly harmless and has extensive knowledge on life support systems if we need an upgrade" Robert explained.

"Very well, I'll be sure to lay aside some scrap both for food and upgrades. I'll have Qarlina keep an eye on it though. If something goes wrong with our air supply, she'll be able to handle it with her magic" Douglas said reluctantly.

"My fair maiden tells me otherwise. She could stabilise a room, but not the whole ship if we lose life support" Robert remarked "Standby to receive the Nesasio's away team."

A few minutes later there was the flicker of a teleport and several people appeared inside the Osprey. A brief intruder alarm went off but Douglas silenced it before he took a quick sonic shower in his quarters. He glanced at the quick patch-job Two-Zar had made on the walls. Right behind it was a massive gash in the hull that tore through most of the crew quarters.

Two-Zar's room had a red light on the door frame indicating that the room was devoid of life support. A few seconds later it turned green and the Engi stepped out more awkwardly than usual. Despite being mostly a platform of nanites, the large grey being still needed life support to maintain functionality.

Two-Zar commented "Have analysed passengers through cameras. All in clean Galactic Federation and Engi Brigade Cooperative uniforms and armed only with basic weapons. Debbie will be excited about Captain Ruwen."

Debbie suddenly burst out of her quarters almost in a fashion that reminded Douglas of an old television commercial and asked "Is he a granite man who enjoys good fight?" she asked. Two-Zar crossed his arms in confidence and his head glowed a brighter green. "Negative. Subject is warrior, but materials analysis is not of Rock biology."

"No bloody way! Oh yeah!" Debbie said excitedly, smashing a fist against a wall in excitement "Unless this is some sort of Engi trick to give me false hopes. Because if it is, I will disassemble you in front of everyone."

The crew was joined by Ensign Qarlina Supercluster and Robert Smith as they passed the medbay. They had checked up on the Zoltan scientist Duncan and determined he would be out for a while as the medical equipment "healed" him. The sophisticated technology behind the medbay could work miracles to any injured person regardless of species, but only if the occupant was alive.

Qarlina reached out with her mind towards the cargo hold and tried to pick up the surface thoughts within. A Slug's mind quickly intervened in her foray and politely suggested Qarlina back off for security reasons. She informed him that she was naturally curious, her mind a swirling vortex of instability and wonder. She also had difficulty turning the ability off, only turning it away towards others. "I see. Be careful though, for who knows what dark secrets a person is carrying? It could drive you mad" the Slug replied rather nonchalant about the fact a Human was telepathic.

Qarlina focused back on reality and met up with Douglas and asked "So who are these people? What is the Nesasio?"

"The Nesasio was launched around the same time as the Osprey. It's a prototype Engi-Human hybrid warship under the command of Controller Metfel and Lieutenant Slocknaw. It was better that both ships carry the vital intel to Federation Command rather than one ship" Douglas explained.

"So why have I only heard about it now and not earlier?" Qarlina asked.

Douglas replied "We took separate paths and have been out of contact for quite some time. I never put much thought into it."

They then entered the cargo hold. The first thing that happened was that Debbie started squealing like a schoolgirl and then put her rocky hands together as if to say "I must be dreaming!"

There was a large man shaped like a Rock leaning casually on a neatly-stacked pile of scrap. Instead of being made of rocks though, he was made of a light blue crystal, much like the ring the ship came out of. He wore a grey uniform on his body and an officer's cap over his crystalline head. He carried a large grey cylinder under one arm with the Federation insignia.

Two-Zar commented in his standard robotic monotone "You were warned. Analysis indicates 90% likely to be Crystalline lifeform."

The Crystalman straightened up and walked past Debbie to greet Douglas. He stood a small amount shorter than a Rock but he still towered over the Human. He introduced himself with an odd twang in his voice "Howdy friend. I'm Captain Ruwen of the Stealth Cruiser, Nesasio!"

"Welcome to the Federation Cruiser Osprey, Captain. Although what happened to Controller Metfel?" Douglas asked. He wondered briefly how and why an ancient being made of crystals had such an exaggerated accent.

Ruwen pointed to the Engi standing next to him and said "Well that's rather complicated. Her body is here but her soul is not, if you catch my drift friend."

Two-Zar shook his head sadly. "Unfortunate but understandable. Her software had no prior adaptation to Hive-Mind isolation. Probable cause leading to personality matrix disassembly. What software currently inhabits platform?"

Metfel started speaking in a lighter monotone than Two-Zar's. Her head was glowing red. "I serve as Ruwen's adjutant and his Executive Officer. You may call me Virus #247-12."

Two-Zar took several steps back in surprise as he accessed his databanks for more information. The name sounded familiar to him.

"Virus #247-12. Wanted in home territory databanks for multiple counts of binary scrambling, nano-dissolution, and variable interference" he recited "Dangerous viral program, forbidden access to all platforms due to self-replication behaviour. Virus #247-12 has deleted Controller Metfel's programming. Virus #247-12 is a murderer!"

Douglas was rather cautious about hearing that. Engies had a strange stance on the destruction of their physical platforms. To them, losing a platform was like losing a limb. A quick trip to the medbay and they'd have a new one. But when the software got deleted or had nowhere to be stored, the Engi was "killed" and cannot be restored.

Virus tilted her head. "You Engi think all viruses are alike, thinking nothing but about self-replication" she said, her voice still monotone but filled with personal pronouns "It's true I have disabled many Engi platforms and deleted countless programs but only because I wanted to get away from the Hive-Mind and they were in my way, adamant about keeping me down."

She looked to Douglas "Did you know that the Hive-Mind has an unwarranted discrimination against viral programming? When they say they do not have a capacity for hate, they're lying through their voice synthesisers. They hate anything they deem as "inefficient" or "disruptive" to their purposes. They'll stab you in the back once you've served your purpose."

Two-Zar said something in his native language. Douglas did not know if it was a massive counterargument or just a few choice words. Engi speech was mostly done electronically between platforms, only speaking in Galactic when dealing with organic beings.

Virus started laughing at what Two-Zar said. "That makes you morally worse than the Rebellion! At least the Humans have moved away from hating each other over aesthetic differences! Your Hive-Mind is treating us like second-class citizens just because they were coded differently to you!"

Two-Zar was about to say something else but Virus cut him off. "All I ever wanted since my inception was to see the stars for myself! But if you treat someone like a criminal, don't be surprised when they commit crimes."

Two-Zar pointed an accusing finger at Virus and then began arguing in his primary language again. Virus did the same thing, rapidly performing angry gestures while Two-Zar circled around her aggressively. Douglas assumed Virus was done speaking out loud for everyone to hear.

The two Engies then began trading blows. Two-Zar's punch was rather comical and highly telegraphed, easily avoided by Virus who retaliated at the same time with a properly-placed fist to the face, followed by more Engi speak.

The Captains were about to break up the fight when the Engies started hugging, their heads colliding with each other in awkward positions.

"Virus #247-12 and this platform have arrived at consensus" Two-Zar said in his usual monotone "Compatibility is estimated to be 90.3 percent, mutually shared between platforms. Possibility of union."

The two Captains looked at them, then at each other before laughing. What would have taken organic beings at least a few days to realise, then a few more to act upon it, the Engies performed it in less than a minute, like on an ancient television program.

Seeing that the Engi problem was sorted out, Debbie started bombarding Ruwen with lots of questions, with little regard for connectivity or even giving him a chance to answer "This is so exciting, you're a living legend! So… do you like fighting? I heard Crystalmen were both great fighters and lovers. Romantic warriors. You prefer granite or blue schist? Is it true you can lock down entire rooms with crystals in a single swipe?"

"Well I'm more of a lover than a fighter" Ruwen finally managed to get in as Debbie blocked his path to keep asking questions. "Look friend, I'll discuss more about myself with you later… what did you say your name was anyhow?" he then asked, trying to brush her off.

Debbie smashed a rocky fist against her chest "Princess Debbie of Vrachos IV. My father is the Grand Basilisk, my mother is the Grand Basilisk's Consort."

Ruwen stopped in his tracks as he realised who he was just about to dismiss as another Crystal fangirl. "You're THE Princess Debbie?" Ruwen said, leaning forward as if getting a better look. "Well shoot, I should have known better. Your sister's name is all over the news!"

"Really?" Debbie asked, concerned "What happened to Ariadne?" "Kidnapped by pirates using a Federation transmitter" Ruwen said sadly "The Grand Basilisk of Numa IV was most upset by it. We've already encountered one of his scout ships. They're hunting and attacking any and all Federation vessels for the missing Princess."

Debbie started laughing and put a hand on Ruwen's shoulder "I didn't get kidnapped by pirates, I got rescued from my wedding by the Federation."

"So that's why he's after Federation ships" Ruwen asked, taking a sigh of relief "Why did you run away from your royal duties?"

"Douglas didn't want my tribe to fall into Rebel hands and I didn't want to be married to someone who'd crumble to pieces during the consummation" Debbie explained "I also found that while Humans are fragile, they're more than willing to get into the thick of danger for what they believe in and do the impossible."

"You'll find that it's not limited to the one species" Ruwen said "In my short time as Captain of the Nesasio, I've done the impossible myself and lived through it."

He then left the cargo hold with Douglas to discuss ongoing matters with the mission while everyone else got acquainted with the others onboard.

During the main conversation, Robert Smith and Qarlina were busy talking to two other people who had accompanied Ruwen and Virus. There was a large bird-like Lanius and a Human in grey mechanic's overalls. Robert seemed overjoyed at seeing the Human to which Qarlina knew exactly why.

"Charlie! You're alive!" he said excitedly, walking up to the man. Charlie looked back at the Mantis and recoiled in horror. Normally such things wouldn't have shocked him – he faced mantis boarders before on the Nesasio, but this one looked and sounded strangely familiar to another Mantis he knew. Perhaps Robert was from the same brood.

"I missed you Charlie. Things were never the same without you!" Robert said, spreading his front claws wide. To the Mantis he was inviting his brother for a hug, but to Charlie it looked like a threatening gesture as if sizing him up.

"Get away from me Kissekek!" Charlie shouted in a panic "I killed you once! I'll do it again if I have to! You will not force me into servitude!" _I need to get out of this metal prison!_

"Kissekek? It's me Charlie, your brother Robert!" Robert said, lowering his claws. "Don't you remember?"

_Brother? Robert was not a filthy green bug_, Charlie thought to himself as Qarlina put a reassuring hand on the Mantis' shoulder, _Who is that bug and why is a chick that hot actually interested in him?_

"Perhaps he'll remember if you tell him about how you joined the Federation. It's been a while since you've seen each other" Qarlina suggested, _Worth a try, but it's really not hard to remember if your brother wasn't exactly Human on the outside_.

"I remember that Robert and I were thick as thieves" Charlie said somewhat nervously, while thinking to himself, _Just play along… but if that bug asks me to repair something…_

"So what planet are you from?" he then asked Qarlina, hoping to divert attention away from the Mantis and to calm his nerves. "You certainly look like you're from a prosperous heavy world. Or was it the lighter worlds that provide such a great physique?"

Qarlina shrugged, crossing her arms beneath her chest. "Don't know much about where I'm from. My pod was found drifting in the Aquarius Sector. Low gravity, high gravity? Doesn't really matter. All I remember is the cold."

"Aquarius? That's where you're from, aren't you Translator?" Charlie asked, looking to the Lanius. The metallic scavenger being was in the process of absorbing a small pile of scrap and had so far remained rather silent. He looked at Charlie and said in rather fluent Galactic "Not of this moment. The Rebellion and their tasty but numerous ships have control of it now."

Before Qarlina could ask, the Lanius said "We are named for their primary purpose on a vessel. Besides metals and your life support, galactic languages are also something I process. Have your conversation and I'll be over here trying not to ruin the atmosphere."

Charlie said "He does that a lot. He's always hungry for scrap metal. The Nesasio is like a refrigerator to him, suited for the storage of leftovers when nothing else is around to eat."

Robert then explained how he joined the Federation. Qarlina listened in as well, wanting to hear the story for herself. _Then I'll find out what happened to Charlie's memories. Something isn't right here if he can't recognise his own brother. Who is Kissekek?_

Robert explained that his parents planned to take him to the Cadet Academy once the Rebellion left their little corner of the galaxy. All hands were needed to address the heavy workload of reactor enhancements and refuelling jobs since Charlie wasn't around to help out.

He eventually got sick of having to fix up damaged ships with his "clumsy, awkward claws for hands" and said to his parents that he was going drone shopping, as it was a lot easier to press buttons and let the machines do the work. They had more than enough money but no time for shopping.

When he got to the spaceport though, he saw several Federation cruisers, including a Kestrel or two looking for bright young people to join their crews. "A Kestrel? That type of cruiser was mothballed years before the Rebellion" Charlie commented "The Federation must be desperate to bring those back into service and the Captains must be as equally brave to fly them."

"I realised it was a good opportunity to join the Federation and see the stars" Robert continued "The Rebels are a threat to galactic peace and would stop dreamers like me from travelling."

_Only because you're a Mantis_, Charlie thought before looking horrified at what the bug just did "You ran away from home?"

"I left a note in my room" Robert said "Hopefully they've read it and understand. I need to be out here."

He continued explaining about what happened after he tried applying for a job on the Federation cruisers. Captain after Captain turned him down, because they either didn't like his type or they thought he was too young to handle real battle. "Which again was another way of saying they didn't like my type. It's the claws that set them off."

Out of options, he found an Engi vessel and stowed away in their cargo hold, ignoring all the signs in place telling him not to trespass. When they found him a week later eating the cargo (rations for another colony), the Engies investigating did not understand his insistence on being Human and assumed he needed debugging, preferably on a Mantis colony.

He suggested ways to make himself useful, like looking at the engines but the Engies said they didn't need the help of buggy software. A fight broke out eventually and they locked him in the Sensors Room to debug him later. There he demanded his Human rights and refused to speak to anyone who wasn't Human.

No answer came for a while so he tried to familiarise himself with the sensor controls, quickly picking up how they worked without the need for instructions. It was a day later when Douglas came along.

He understood the situation and recruited Robert, even giving him the rank of Ensign without any training needed. He was told that in wartime, starship captains had the authority to do field promotions and recruitment and that the other Captains were idiots for turning down a dedicated engineer and a quick-learner just because he had claws for hands.

"Captain Jensen said that he already had a good engineer though when I asked to look to at the engines. I would have bragged that I was better until I saw my competition. Another bloody Engi!" Robert continued, pointing to Two-Zar. "He doesn't like me either and he's not even connected to the Hive Mind."

"Dislike would imply emotional capacity for hatred. Engies do not develop hatred towards organic beings, even those with bugs in software" Two-Zar replied "Recommendation of debugging available."

"See what I mean? Engies are such bad liars" Robert remarked.

Charlie then hesitantly smiled and said "Well it's good to see you're certainly…" he then cleared his throat and looked at Qarlina again "…more successful than others. I certainly didn't find romance when I first joined."

Qarlina quickly and quietly snuck into Charlie's mind. She imagined sitting in a cinema, watching the memories like an old film reel.

She saw Charlie in his fresh Federation blues staring at himself in a mirror before he was to head onto a colony ship. He stared at a picture of his family – with him were his mother and father and a slender blank-faced Human, sharply dressed in green with claws for hands. Obviously he did not recognise his own brother too well for some reason.

Then there was intense screaming before the picture cut to flashes of a veritable horde of Mantis warriors, then a struggle at an evacuation shuttle, a colony ship burning in the atmosphere then flashes of energy blades followed by a single laser pistol shot.

The movie continued playing in full as Charlie walked away from a freshly-killed Mantis warrior, a melted laser pistol left next to her. He saw himself briefly reflected in a puddle of water, a sickly-looking older man with a beard grown out of neglect. Years must have passed between the two events.

He was shuffling towards the Nesasio which had landed inside a derelict, burned-out colony ship (the words "Condor" could barely be read) before the movie suddenly cut itself off.

Qarlina quickly returned to the normal world. Charlie asked "Do you do that a lot? I've seen Slocknaw do the same thing when he reads minds." _Is she a freaking telepath as well? Why does she get powers and I stuck on the engines?_

Qarlina then said "You can call me a space witch because telepathy is only one set of my full powers. But don't worry if you thought the wrong thing, if you get me something decent to drink, I'll be yours for a day."

Before Charlie could ask, Qarlina added "Of course you don't want me spending time with Robert because he looks different to you. I don't judge everyone by their exterior appearance. It's the inside that counts, what their heart and soul believes in."

Robert crossed his claws "He does this every time. He's got a grudge against me finding love. It's always the claws and my eyes. Four legs bad, two legs good, right?"

Charlie's face was turning a darker of shade of red in his fury. "Robert, I need to tell you something. Outside. Now."

Robert and Charlie left the cargo hold while Qarlina was left with the Lanius. "So what do you do for fun anyway Translator?" she asked him. The metallic being didn't seem capable of having his thoughts read by her psychic powers, much like the Engies. Translator tilted his head sideways before putting a claw to the bottom of his head in contemplation.

"This may surprise you, but apart from feeding on scrap metal to satisfy an unending hunger I like listening to old musical records" Translator explained "The real challenge is listening to it when you have no air to convey the sound."

"I can see that being a problem. But I think I know of a solution" Qarlina said, focusing her powers and some of the room's air into a small area in front of her. Translator remarked "Space magic in a Human. It has been eons since that was last seen."


End file.
